Holmes and Washington Counties are operating under a local state of emergency tonight.

It's a precautionary measure for now. But if the Choctawhatchee River water level continues to rise as predicted, they could be dealing with serious flooding. Fortunately, previous floods have helped the counties prepare for what's coming.

The rain from the last few weeks hasn't helped with the flooding that will be coming through Thursday night.

At 7am, the Choctawhatchee River in Caryville was sitting at 15.18 feet, almost reaching moderate flood stage.

"Currently, we have four roads that's barricaded and impassable but fortunately, at this time, we don't have anybody that's isolated, there's no residents on the road that's affected now," says Public Safety Director Roger Hagan.

He says the Washington County Emergency Operations Center is concerned about the river's fluctuating water levels and they are closely monitoring it.

"Our current forecast for Washington County is somewhere 1-2 inches. Of course what we have to take into consideration is the rain above us in the southern Alabama area is what compounds or worsens our flooding problem."

Over in Holmes county, the Choctawhatchee River is posing a much bigger threat to those living near it.

Highway 179 is one of six roads that's already been closed.
Resident Ronnie Curry says his cow pasture now sits underneath all this water.

"It's been raining so much up here, the ground has just saturated it, it just runs off, it just don't soak any of it, it just runs back into the rivers and streams."

Curry says he had to move all of his 30 cows across the street. But it's not only animals that have been disturbed.

"We do have some families that's relocated and some that's blocked off from their homes. Contingent upon the weather we get in this evening or tomorrow, the amount of rainfall could be a very important impact on what we're expecting the rivers to do," says Holmes County Emergency Management Director Wanda Stafford.

Fortunately, record floods during the 1990s has helped both counties prepare for the upcoming rain.

"We got used to it, it's happened so many times."
But Stafford and Hagan are urging everyone to stay off any roads or bridges with standing water.
"Turn around and do NOT go through it."
They say the Choctawhatchee River is expected to continue rising until Saturday afternoon.

The Red Cross has opened a shelter at the New Hope Volunteer Fire Department in Holmes County.

If you need to reach their Emergency Operations Center, you can call (850)-547-1112. And the number to the Washington County EOC is(850)-638-6203 .