DALLAS - Louisiana officials say a controlled release of water has begun, reducing the threat at an endangered dam at a southwest Mississippi state park.
Christina Stephens, a spokeswoman for the Governor's Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness, says Louisiana received notice of the start shortly before 2:30 p.m.
A mandatory evacuation was ordered as a dam threatened to break Thursday morning at Lake Tangipahoa at the Percy Quin Dam in Mississippi. After flying over Tangipahoa Parish, Gov. Bobby Jindal and Parish President Gordon Burgess ordered the immediate evacuation of Kentwood, a town of 2,200.
The evacuation area ran from Kentwood, Louisiana to Robert, Louisiana along the river. Officials went door-to-door alerting people of the evacuation and the governor activated evacuation transportation, including flights and buses out of the area.
Mississippi's Department of Environmental Quality says it probably will dig out part of the bank of Lake Tangipahoa to allow the release of water into the river. They say they won't breach the dam itself.
