Residents In West Alton, Miss., have been ordered to evacuate the area immediately after the waters from the Mississippi River topped the nearby Consolidated North County Levee.
Flooding alert: Due to the overtop of CNC levee on MS River in West Alton officials direct residents of West Alton to evacuate immediately.
— St Charles County MO (@sccmo) December 29, 2015
Residents were under a volunatry evacuation over the weekend, but Mayor William Richter made the evacuation mandatory Tuesday, ordering any of the town's remaining 520 residents who had not already evacuated to leave immediately, according to CBS St. Louis.
The area has been bombarded by as much as 12 inches of rain throughout the past three days, and historic flooding is soon to follow. Several areas along the river are expected to come close to or surpass record crests of December 1982 and the summer of 1993.
For example, the Mississippi RIver is forecast to crest in Alton, Ill., which lies just across the river from West Alton, on Thursday at 38 feet, 17 over flood stage, reported the National Weather Service. This marks the second highest crest of the river, only surpassed by the 42.72-foot crest recorded on Aug. 1, 1993.
In the meantime, the U.S. Coast Guard closed a 5-mile section of the Mississippi River near St. Louis due to flooding on Tuesday, citing high water levels and fast currents, according to ABC News.
To see the latest river levels and crest information, click HERE.
