By ADRIAN SAINZ and HOLBROOK MOHR
Associated Press
MEMPHIS – The Mississippi River crest has passed through the South, but the misery caused by flooding is far from over.
As water recedes, residents from Tennessee to Louisiana face the task of gutting houses soaked in polluted water. Farmers will have to scrub their fields of sandy sludge before trying to use what’s left of the growing season. Shipping is likely to be restricted for weeks because of pressure on levees, and a close watch will be kept well into the summer on strained levees, bridges and other structures.
“It’s falling now, slowly but surely. But it ain’t falling that fast for me to get home,” said William Jefferson, who has had at least 6 feet of water in his Vicksburg, Miss., house for two weeks. “I don’t know what to expect. I won’t know what to expect until I open the doors. Nobody knows until they open the door, then all hell breaks loose.”