More rains predicted for flood-stricken Mississippi

Forecasters expected more heavy rains in parts of the flood-ravaged South on Tuesday, prolonging the misery for worried people who still can't get back into homes surrounded by water.

Some of the hardest-hit areas were under a flash flood watch, as the National Weather Service said as much as 2 inches (5 centimeters) of rain, and even more in some spots — was expected to fall in central Mississippi.

The national Weather Prediction Center in College Park, Maryland, projected the greatest likelihood of heavy rains in a band from eastern Louisiana across central parts of Mississippi and Alabama extending into far west Georgia.

Authorities around Mississippi's capital city of Jackson warned hundreds of residents not to return home until they get an all-clear following devastating flooding Monday.

The receding flood left muddy water marks on the sides of cars at the Harbor Pines Mobile Home Community in suburban Ridgeland, not far from where managers of the Ross Barnett Reservoir have been trying to contain the swollen Pearl River. Water still surrounded dozens of trailer homes Tuesday, but the water level had fallen 2 feet (0.6 meters) or more since Monday.

Crews were going lot to lot to check the duct work beneath mobile homes to determine how many had been inundated by water. The power remained off as a precaution and it wasn't clear when residents could return. Meanwhile, on the Gulf Coast, water draining toward the ocean cut off a neighborhood on the Tensaw River in Baldwin County, Alabama, where residents had to use boats to get to homes, news outlets reported. The Mobile River is forecast to crest more than 4 feet (1.2 meters) above flood level this weekend north of Mobile.

Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey issued a state of emergency that directed state agencies to assist with recent flooding and allowed local school systems where flooding occurred to ask for relief in fulfilling school calendar requirements.

A near-record rainy winter led to agonizing choices for reservoir managers, who have had to release water that worsens flooding for some people living downstream while saving many other properties from damage.