Mississippi senator asks Trump for pumps to ease flooding
Posted Jun 12, 2019 08:08:01 PM.
JACKSON, Miss. — One of Mississippi’s U.S. senators wants President Donald Trump to order temporary pumps to remove floodwaters from part of the state that’s been underwater for four months.
U.S. Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith made the request Wednesday in a letter to Trump, noting the federal government sent temporary pumps to remove water from New Orleans after 2005’s Hurricane Katrina.
Flooding is again worsening in parts of Mississippi’s Delta region after the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers closed a floodgate north of Vicksburg on Friday. The gate protects areas from even worse inundation by the swollen Mississippi River. But water inside levees has nowhere to go, because a planned pumping station was vetoed as harmful to the region’s wetlands.
Hyde-Smith and other Mississippi officials want the veto reversed and the pumping station built.
Jeff Amy, The Associated Press
