MORGANZA - Hunters are packing up and moving out of areas near the Morganza Spillway ahead of potential flooding.

"It's not bad right now, but it's coming," said Cody Landry, who hunts deer in that area during this time of the year.

The Mississippi River is rising and Governor Bobby Jindal issued a state of emergency, saying there's an imminent threat of widespread flooding.

The Morganza Spillway hasn't been opened since 2011, and people who know that area well say they're bracing for the worst.

"Yes, definitely, they're going to open the spillway," said Landry.

Those who remember the last time it was opened recall it as a difficult experience.

"It's not a pleasant ordeal to go through at all," said Butch Carrier, who moved his hunting camp away from the spillway's path in 2011, "I figured I got 14 feet of water where my camp was."

Jindal’s office says the state of emergency extends from Wednesday to Thursday, Jan. 28 unless it is terminated sooner.