MONTICELLO — Town officials are beginning to assess the damagefrom the flooding earlier this month as the Pearl River slowlyreturns to normal levels.

The river, which crested at 29 feet, has dropped about five feetsince the state received more than 11 inches of rain in earlyMarch.

“There are some things we can’t see yet, but the river hasdropped enough to begin some initial assessments,” said Mayor DavidNichols III.

There are two areas that already show some damage.

The receding waters deposited large amounts of sand throughoutAtwood Water Park, Nichols said, and the roads and camping padswill have to be cleared and cleaned.

The front fence of the park will have to be replaced. Inaddition to the decaying effects of water-rot, the fence alsoreceived more immediate damage.

“When the river went down it also took some of the timbers,”Nichols said. “They’re probably in the mouth of the Mississippi bynow.”

A few areas of the park are still submerged and Nichols saidthey will have to wait for the water to recede some more beforethey can know what kind of damage was done there.

“Power in the park was shut off before the park flooded,” hesaid. “We’re hoping the rubber seals kept water out of thetransformers. We’ll just have to wait until the water recedesbefore we can test it.”

The town had also begun construction on a new boat ramp. It isstill submerged.

There is some positive news about the park, though.

“It didn’t get on the stage or the tennis courts. We’re thankfulfor that,” he said. “And the supports for the stage are made ofsix- or eight-inch steel I-beams so, they should be fine. The onlywood on the stage is the back wall and roof.”

The mayor said he is concerned about river bank damage where thePearl makes a bend in the downtown area. There is bank damage fromCooper’s Ferry Park downriver to Caswell Street, he said.

The town has petitioned the Land, Water and Conservation Serviceto declare the town portion of the river bank to be an emergencyand will seek state and federal funding to repair damage there.

The town did receive such assistance about two years ago for abank stabilization project on that same bank, he said. There wasmuch less rain and much less damage at that time, so he is hopefulthe town will benefit from the funding again this time.