TUNICA, Miss. — Tunica communities have been left flooded as water poured into homes after days of rain.
That leaves residents like Jerald Cottam relying on transportation that floats.
“You have to boat in and out. That’s the only way. It happens every year, but not this bad,” Cottam said.
Flooding isn’t new for the Tunica camps. When constant rainfall comes, there’s always a chance Tunica Cutoff will swell and spill over.
“This will be the fourth worst flood on record from what I understand,” Cottam said.
Cottam says, while this flooding is bad, it’s nothing compared to eight years ago.
“A lot of these houses you see, there was water over the roofs and at least up to the mid-level.”
He knows the devastation caused by the flooding, because he suffered too.
“After losing my first house in the 2011 flood, we learned what we needed to do to be prepared for these floods.”
While many residents have evacuated this time around, Cottam says he doesn’t have to because he was ready.
“It’s three levels. We can put everything on the upper levels to protect it from the flood.”
Cottam says while mother nature is covering the beauty of his community right now, it’s still home and this too shall pass.
