Dear Editor,
I am Lana Ashley 601 695 2311 and I live at Rockport on the bank of the Pearl River.
I lived here in the Easter flood of 1979 and this flood of 2020. In the Easter flood my home was in water 3 feet, this year the lower part of my split level home was flooded.
Also, my brother Tim Ashley’s home below me was flooded. Although we continue to Be flooded through the years, we love the Pearl River and it is home to us and hard to leave as I am sure it is to others. It is a risk that you take living on any water front. Ever so often there is a chance of a flood. It appears it is more often these days than from times past. The Pearl flooded in 1874 and the year 1900 when my great grandfather Jefferson Little lived here. There was another flood in 1961 in which I was too young to remember. 1979 was the big flood and then last week. So you just never know when it could happen next. The dam in Jackson built back in the 60s has had a huge impact on the River. It has destroyed the banks, made the river wider and trees have fallen in by the hundreds destroying the natural landscape. I have pictures when the River was clean and beautiful.
By the grace of God we will recover from this and get our homes back in order. The Bible reminds us that this too will pass.
I write to you to say this. We at Rockport would like to thank our Sheriff Mullins for bringing help to sandbag our homes. He made multiple visits to check on us and we thank him for working tirelessly through this unfortunate occurrence.
Also our county supervisor, Mr Welch for bringing the workers sand which was much needed. We thank him kindly.
Lastly, but not least our county Mema Director, John Kilpatrick, made numerous trips here to see what was needed and coordinated efforts of all kinds. We thank him too.
We are fortunate here in our county to have these public servants in times of need. I Hope that no one reading this ever needs this type help, but if you should find yourself like us in a disaster you will know that these folks will help you any way possible.
Lana Ashley
