The Environmental Protection Agency and Army Corps of Engineers hosted a public hearing about the Yazoo Backwater Pumps Project earlier this month.

“It does demonstrate our interest and commitment in proceeding to find the right solution here, the right approach to deal with the Yazoo backwater flooding issue,” said Assistant Secretary of the Army Michael Connor during the opening of the second of five Yazoo Backwater Community Engagement sessions.

Each engagement session lasted as long as it took for everyone who wanted to speak to have their chance in front of the microphone. The testimonies consisted of Mississippi Delta residents telling how their lives were turned upside down, how their homes were filled with flood waters, and how their farms rendered useless for another year due to the lack of the Yazoo Backwater pumps. For most, if not all in attendance, they’ve dealt with the floods and the attended the public hearings many times before.

“My job in 2019 was to sandbag every day and help anyone that needed it,” said Harlie Beth Windham, the daughter of a Sharkey County farmer. “We sandbagged at Valley Park Elevator for two weeks straight.

Windham, a Rolling Fork native, and her family were considered lucky that year – if you can call it that. Her family’s home never flooded, but their farm stayed under water.

“It was really hard as a farmer because that’s your life,” she said. “You plan on 1,800 acres – which is what we were supposed to farm that year – to make a living. We only got 500 acres planted, and we prayed every day as we planted up to the water. We re-planted I don’t know how many times. It was a struggle to go out there every day and see six feet of water over your fields.”

In 2020, Farm Bureau made the trip to Anderson Jones’s home still surrounded by flood waters. Today, he and his family are slowly trying to rebuild. Jones said he is often asked why he doesn’t move.

“Some people take the money, but I won’t. It’s my home,” said Jones, and Issaquena County farmer.

Charlie Darden’s family has lived and farmed near Onward for 140 years. In 2019, 90% of his farm was underwater. That same year, Darden gave Mississippi Farm Bureau Federation President Mike McCormick and Farm Bureau staff a trip over the south Mississippi Delta to survey the damage with their own eyes.

“Oh, it’s devastating,” Darden said. “We have crop insurance. Everybody does, because it’s required by lenders. But, no one is going to make a living farming on crop insurance. I promise you. It’s just not a long‑term solution. It’s a patch to get you by until the next year, and then, hopefully, better times will come.”

Speaker after speaker during the hearing told the government panel the solution should be to finish the pumps promised back in the 1940s as part of the original plans. But, there is no guarantee any action will be taken. For South Delta residents and farmers, they hope this time their words will find the right ears.

“We hope these hearings work,” said Eddie Holcomb, and Issaquena County Supervisor. “But, we’ve been fighting this for years, over 50 years. We just keep trying. We can’t quit. We live here and want to stay here. It’s home.”