Continuous rain causes concern at Oktibbeha County Lake

OKTIBBEHA COUNTY, Miss. (WCBI) – Pumps at the Oktibbeha County Lake have managed to bring water levels down and take some pressure off the dam.

But, county officials have kept an eye on the sky, bracing for the possibility of more rain that could cause a setback for the project.

Rainfall from this past Wednesday caused the water in the lake to rise four feet.  With the possibility of more heavy rain on the way, county leaders want to make sure they’re prepared.

These pumps have moved thousands of gallons of water by the minute in the Oktibbeha County Lake.

“We had it down some several feet, with just a few more feet to go,” said Oktibbeha County volunteer fire fighter Kirk Rosenhan.

Rosenhan said although water levels are stable now, there’s a growing concern that he’ll need to pay close attention to over the next week — rain.

“The water has negated the work and we got more rain coming,” said Rosenhan.

Excessive rainfall could cause water levels to rise several feet in a short period.

“Some spots may get over 6 inches over the course of a couple of days and that’s just not needed at this point,” explained WCBI Chief Meteorologist Keith Gibson.

Gibson said North Mississippi could see anywhere from two to eight inches of rain in just four days.

“There’s a pretty good chance that the water could rise very fast in that lake, and rivers, and any other lake around here too with the water that we may see in the region,” said Gibson.

That’s enough water to add more pressure on the dam.

“Any rain is going to cause some waters to rise and we may see some widespread flooding issues next week. We’re anticipating several rounds of rain, several inches of rain,” said Gibson.

That’s why county leaders are preparing for the worst-case scenario.

“We got sandbags as you can see in areas to stabilize where the bank of fell off here a few weeks ago,” said Rosenhan. “We doubled checked the downstream it’s no problem, we’re not overflowing or anything. Everything should work according to plan. My charge now is to get the lake level low enough that the county engineer can contract to modify that intake structure and that way we can do a bunch of drainage without the use of pumps.

Officials said they will continue to monitor the water.