4A / NEWS / THURSDAY, MAY 12, 2011 / THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN / KANSAN.COM
Campanile cleaning
Ashleigh Lee/KANSAN
The Campanile is fenced off until May 18 for cleaning. Fences will be removed for the commencement ceremony on May 22.
www.ContinuingEd.ku.edu (keyword: testprep) • 785-864-5823
Mississippi floodwaters force hundreds to flee
DISASTER
People used boats to navigate flooded streets as the crest rolled slowly downstream, bringing misery to poor, low-lying communities. Hundreds have left their homes in the Delta in the past several days as the water rose toward some of the highest levels on record.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
RENA LARA, Miss. — Floodwaters from the bloated Mississippi River and its tributaries spilled across farm fields, cut off churches, washed over roads and forced people from their homes Wednesday in the Mississippi Delta, a poverty-streken region.
The flood crest is expected to push past the Delta by late next week.
familiar to Civil War buffs, aficionados of the blues, and scholars of the civil rights era: Clarksdale Greenwood, Greenville and Yazoo City.
Officials in the town, which has no local newspaper or TV stations, tried to reassure residents that they are doing what they can to shore up the levee and that they will warn people if they need to leave.
While some farms in the cotton-, rice- and corn-growing Delta are prosperous, there is also grinding poverty. Nine of the 11 counties that touch the Mississippi River in Mississippi have poverty rates at least double the national average of 13.5 percent, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour urged people to get out if they think there is even a chance their homes will flood. He said there is no reason to believe a levee on the Yazoo River would fail, but if it did, 107 feet of water would flow over small towns.
The Mississippi Delta, with a population of about 465,000, is a leaf-shaped expanse of rich soil between the Mississippi and Yazoo Rivers, extending about 200 miles from Memphis, Tenn., to Vicksburg, Miss. Along the way are towns whose names are
The governor said the state is asking local officials to get in touch with people who might have no electricity and phones and thus no way to get word of the flooding.
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Student Alumni Association Members you're invited to
FINALS DINNER
Stop by anytime between 5-7:30 p.m. Monday, May 16 - Adams Alumni Center
Relax with a free dinner, 10-minute back massage by licensed massage therapists and fun give-aways.
Treat a friend to a free meal. Student Alumni Association members may bring one friend who is not a current SAA member.
Student Alumni Association The University of Kansas
1266 Oread Avenue • 864-4760 www.kualumni.org