More than a 1,000 people are filling a National Guard Armory in Rolling Fork to hear officials discuss the swiftly rising Mississippi River.

The line of parked cars stretched for at least a mile Wednesday in Rolling Fork along two-lane U.S. Highway 61.

The highway cuts through the Mississippi Delta’s fertile farmlands that are likely to flood even before the river crests in coming weeks at possibly its highest level in decades.

Ellis Stuart, a 66-year-old retired farmer from nearby Cary, says he’s been stocking up on goods and hopes to ride out the flood. He says he’ll stay in his home until authorities make him leave.

Bill Newsome, president of the Sharkey County Board of Supervisors, says people are “extremely concerned.”