A levee protects a home surrounded by floodwater from the Yazoo River on May 18, 2011 near Vicksburg, Mississippi. The flooded Mississippi River is forcing the Yazoo River to top its banks where the two meet near Vicksburg causing towns and farms upstream on the Yazoo to flood. #

Water flows through four open gates of the Morganza spillway into the Atchafalaya River basin, on Sunday, May 15, 2011. The spillway's opening diverted water from heavily populated New Orleans and Baton Rouge - along with chemical plants and oil refineries along the Mississippi's lower reaches - easing pressure on the levees there in the hope of avoiding potentially catastrophic floods. #

A carp tries to swim from the backwater that has flooded the corn fields across River Road north of Yazoo City, Mississippi, on Thursday, May 12, 2011. Fish displaced by the flooding of the Mississippi River and forced into the backwaters of the tributaries are trying to return the their natural environment. #

Carla Jenkins, owner of Vidalia Dock and Storage in Vidalia, Louisiana, takes photos of the rising floodwaters of the Mississippi River, from inside her flooded office in Vidalia, Louisiana, on Wednesday, May 18, 2011. #

The Mississippi River flows through open gates of the Bonnet Carre spillway in Norco, Louisiana, on Wednesday, May 18, 2011. The river water is being diverted into Lake Pontchartrain to help ease the pressure on the levees downstream near New Orleans. #

A deer makes its way from the flooding Atchafalaya Basin in Lottie, Louisiana, on May 18, 2011. Floodwater released from a key Mississippi River spillway surged through Cajun Louisiana, but levees protecting the state's two biggest cities held as river flows neared their peak. #