Community | May 07, 2011 | 42 comments

Mississippi River flooding poses dire threat

source: http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20110506/us_nm/us_flooding_12

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JanforGore
The swollen Mississippi River swallowed up farmland and threatened river towns on Friday, as record amounts of water tested a network of levees and reservoirs built since deadly floods in the last century.

Police in Memphis, Tennessee, distributed evacuation warnings to nearly 3,000 homes, apartment complexes and businesses that could be in the path of the flood waters seen peaking on Monday.

Water lapped onto Beale Street, site of the city's renowned music scene, and threatened homes on Mud Island, a community of about 5,000 residents with a theme park.

The advancing crest on the Mississippi River could approach or break records set in 1927 and 1937. The river swelled to 80 miles wide during the 1927 flood blamed for up to 1,000 deaths and forcing 600,000 people from their homes.

The latest round of flooding in what has been an extremely wet spring after a snowy winter in parts of the U.S. Midwest will force the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to make more difficult decisions like it did earlier this week.

The Army Corps blew up a levee that relieved pressure on towns upstream but inundated dozens of Missouri farms and tens of thousands of fertile acres (hectares).

"These are very tough decisions to make. No matter which way you go, somebody is not being saved," said Northwestern University engineer and infrastructure expert Charles Dowding.

Since the 1927 calamity, billions of dollars have been spent raising levees and adding floodways and reservoirs to absorb flooding, but the system has never been tested like this before, officials said.

Tributaries all along the Mississippi River were backing up, forcing people out of their homes.

There were mandatory evacuations for three towns in Arkansas after the White River, a Mississippi tributary, eclipsed a 1949 record crest and overtopped a levee.

Oil refineries near the Mississippi River in Louisiana and Tennessee were safely beyond the flood waters, companies said.

But barge operators who ferry coal and grain on the bulging waterway were stalled as the U.S. Coast Guard closed a five-mile (eight-km) stretch in southern Missouri.

"It's going to be very difficult. We've got barges in St. Louis that need to go south and barges in New Orleans that need to go north," said Larry Daily of Alter Barge Lines Inc.

"DISASTER SUBCULTURE" ERODED?

"At one point in time, people living along major American rivers that flood frequently had a disaster subculture. But over the years that may have eroded," said Dennis Mileti of the Natural Hazard Center at the University of Colorado.

Two spillways North of New Orleans will be opened next week to divert some of the flow to Lake Pontchartrain and into the Atchafalaya basin. Louisiana plans to begin evacuating inmates from the state prison at Angola and Governor Bobby Jindal warned residents to be vigilant.

"If you know your area was flooded in 1973, it's not too soon to think about ... what supplies you might need if you have to leave for an extended period of time," Jindal said.

In Memphis, the river was projected to crest on Wednesday at 48 feet, just short of the 1937 record of 48.7 feet. The Weather Service forecast record crests downstream in Mississippi at Vicksburg on May 20 and Natchez two days later.

"Once we do hit crest, we certainly expect to be near there for a fair amount of time," said Jim Belles, meteorologist in charge at the National Weather Service in Memphis.
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42 comments // Mississippi River flooding poses dire threat

  • Anthony_Fejfar
    • 0
      Anthony_Fejfar  
    • Image

    • This is a great Article by Gore. At the same time that we have this Missouri River flooding, the Ogallala Aquifer is drying up which will cause draught and a lack of drinking water throughtout the midwest and even down to Texas. The Corp of Engineers should set up pump stations and pump MIssouri River water upstream from Gavin's Point Dam near Yankton, South Dakota, into the underground Ogallala Aquifer on the Nebraska side of the Missouri River. This would reduce flooding and regerate the Aquifer from both drinking water and farming irrigation.

    • 1 year ago
  • Thethingis
    • 0
      Thethingis  

    • Ice caps melt, ocean levels rise, more water plus temperature change equals more condensation, basic science. It's like we're a glass of ice water, Ive seen it all before.

    • 1 year ago
  • bike10
  • letsliveinpeace
  • Itsbatman_Durr
    • 0
      Itsbatman_Durr  

    • thoughts and whatever else i can do for those affected. its a biosphere we're in people, get used to taking hits for the crap we spit out into the winds and such

    • 1 year ago
  • JanforGore
    • +1
      JanforGore  

    • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qkFZMapR6y0

      Pakistan, Australia, Brazil, Columbia, Sri Lanka, India, Germany, Midwest and eastern seaboard of the US...just to name a few. All seeing huge record breaking amounts of rainfall and severe flooding while other parts of the world are in severe drought. The fact that the media is not elaborating on the cause of all of this rain and changing rainfall/ weather patterns is irresponsible.

    • 1 year ago
  • gypsysailor
    • 0
      gypsysailor  

    • It's gonna be a good year for crawfish. Even with all the polution coming into the habitat they still got to be better than Chinese crawfish.

    • 1 year ago
  • JanforGore
    • +1
      JanforGore  
    • Image

    • http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1384333/Mississippi-River-flood-Thousand...

      This is not good.
      ___
      "Thousands already evacuated across region from Illinois to Louisiana

      The flood water is expected to break an 84-year record of 48 feet

      Prisoners fill 120,000 sandbags as worried residents closely watch levels

      Could still be two weeks before some of the most severe flooding hits

      Aftermath could last for weeks as it may be June before areas dry out

      Memphis residents of all ages and races are pitching in to fill sandbags in a desperate last-ditch attempt to ward off flood waters as the Mississippi River threatens millions of homes.

      More than four million people living in 63 counties close to the Mississippi and Atchafalaya rivers from Illinois to the Gulf of Mexico could be affected by flooding in the coming days.
      Communities all along the banks of the Mississippi have been carefully watching the river rise, like a giant bathtub filling up with water.

      Record river levels, some dating as far back as the 1920s, were expected to be broken in some parts along the river. In Memphis, the river was expected to crest at 48 feet on Wednesday, just shy of the 48.7-foot record from the devastating flood of 1937.

      Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1384333/Mississippi-River-flood-Thousand...

    • 1 year ago
  • gypsysailor
  • JanforGore
  • coolplanet
    • +1
      coolplanet  

    • The more CO2 in the atmosphere, the warmer it gets.
      The warmer it gets the more evaporation of H2O.
      The more H2O evaporates into the atmosphere the more rain falls.
      What goes up must come down.....

    • 1 year ago
  • ilikeike
  • JanforGore
    • +3
      JanforGore  

    • http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/07/us/07flood.html?src=me&ref=us

      This isn't just about appeasing your political biases whatever they may be. This is about losing hundreds of thousands of acres of farmland, soil, creatures, ecology, ecosystems, and the washing of nitrogen, RoundUp and who knows what else into the Gulf Of Mexico that has already been turned into a toxic stew that will cause more dead zones. And yes, it too is about loss of human life, and I fear it is only the beginning.

      Excerpt:

      "“Water can be a wonderful and dangerous thing,” said Albert Santa Cruz, the state public safety commissioner. “If it’s coming, get out. And it’s coming.”

      All eyes in the delta are on the Mississippi River and the bulge of water it is carrying southward, pushing back its tributaries into the towns along its banks, sending residents scattering toward higher ground and setting records all along the way.

      “This is historic,” said Col. Jeffrey R. Eckstein, commander of the Vicksburg District of the Army Corps of Engineers, who became the day’s keynote speaker at the last minute. “Things that have never happened, people here have never seen before, we are going to see.”

      Officials have already spent days fighting back the White River in Arkansas, where there have been two deaths and hundreds of homes have flooded. Hundreds of residents are being urged to evacuate certain areas in and around Memphis, where tributaries have swelled into parts of the city as well as suburbs and mobile home parks and inundated a small airport.

      The river is still a couple of weeks away from cresting in the delta, but experts are predicting all-time records here. As it bulges past Natchez around May 22, it is projected to be several feet above the height it reached in 1927, when the river broke its banks, flooded 27,000 square miles, killed hundreds and displaced thousands.

      The flood-control system that arose in the wake of that flood has never been put to such a test.

      “It will be pressured, there’s no question,” said John M. Barry, the author of “Rising Tide: The Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 and How It Changed America.” “That’s about as close to the design capacity as I care to get.”

      Unlike in the 1927 flood, the levees along the Mississippi are not causing the greatest concern, officials and river watchers say. The anxiety is in the backwater, the tributaries that are carrying water from the heavy rains down to the Mississippi. The river is not only too high to take any more water, but is also pushing its own water up into the tributaries — and wherever else it can go."

    • 1 year ago
  • Itsbatman_Durr
  • dinm76
    • +1
      dinm76  

    • As long as the mid-west still votes republican I say LET THEM DROWN!
      This is just Gods way of punishing the evil!
      What's good for the goose is good for the gander!

    • 1 year ago
  • ilikeike
    • 0
      ilikeike  
    • dinm76:

      Isn't it great that all those small government voters will refuse government financial help. They know that when times are lean, you just have to tighten the belt and tough it out.

    • 1 year ago
  • wolfess
  • figgdimension
    • +2
      figgdimension  

    • The Ohio's still running fast and swollen lots of rain lately up here doesn't look good for the ole' Miss good luck everyone fare well hope the levees hold!

    • 1 year ago
  • JanforGore
    • +3
      JanforGore  
    • figgdimension:

      I hope all are safe too figgdimension.... and just to add, I don't care what their politics are. Those on any political side who keep saying let them drown or this is punishment haven't any clue about the horror of such things. I would wish that on no one, not even people I disagree with politically. This is about something that transcends politics.

    • 1 year ago
  • ilikeike
  • Itsbatman_Durr
  • simha
    • +1
      simha  

    • May beit is time for American Military to leave sandy places and work at home with these brising waterlevels.48 feet! we ned to find out what can be done to tackle these problems in the future,suppose these events reoccur.

    • 1 year ago
  • Gravity_Man
    • +2
      Gravity_Man  
    • simha:

      Well, the water came DOWN so with a good solid LASER barrage it could be sent BACK WHERE IT CAME FROM. That's what I allays say, isn't it ? Yep, you allays say that.

      Lasers + evaporate the flood waters. Simple.

    • 4 years ago
  • Nephwrack
  • ilikeike
  • JanforGore
    • +2
      JanforGore  
    • Image

    • http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/capital-weather-gang/post/memphis-faces-mass...

      Memphis faces massive flooding.

      Excerpt:

      "The combination of April deluges in the lower and mid-Mississippi river valley and melt from near-record winter snows farther upstream is leading to historic flooding of America’s largest river. In Memphis, the Mississippi is expected to crest around 48 feet next Wednesday, the second highest level on record. 2,832 properties may be impacted and officials are telling residents to evacuate nearly 1,000 homes vulnerable to inundation.

      Yesterday, the mighty river broke through a temporary levee in Memphis, submerging a downtown airport.

      The 48 foot crest expected May 10 in Memphis would be second to only the great flood of 1937 when the river rose to 48.7 feet. And there is further trouble expected downstream. Jeff Masters at Wunderground writes:

      ...flood waters pouring in from the Arkansas River, Yazoo River, and other tributaries are expected to swell the Mississippi high enough to beat the all-time record at Vicksburg, Mississippi by 1.3’ on May 20, and smash the all-time record at Natchez, Mississippi by six feet on May 22, and by 3.2 feet at Red River Landing on May 23. Red River Landing is the site of the Old River Control Structure, the Army Corps’ massive engineering structure that keeps the Mississippi River from carving a new path to the Gulf of Mexico. ... Its failure would be a serious blow to the U.S. economy, and the great Mississippi flood of 2011 will give the Old River Control Structure its most severe test ever. Also of concern is the forecast for the Mississippi to crest at 19.5 feet in New Orleans on May 24. The levees in New Orleans protect the city for a flood of 20.0 feet--that is not much breathing room."
      ____

      This is a serious crisis. And yes, I do think part of it is due to the effects of climate change due to oversaturation of the hydrologic cycle.

    • 1 year ago
  • queenofit
    • +1
      queenofit  
    • JanforGore:

      Even though they keep comparing this to flooding in 1927, I don't think that is exactly accurate, reading the article [seems to] confirm my premise; "Since the 1927 calamity, billions of dollars have been spent raising levees and adding floodways and reservoirs to absorb flooding, but the system has never been tested like this before, officials said."

      As stated in quote above, "billions of dollars have been spent" and it wasn't like this in 1927, so in fairness, the current floods are much worse? I am not a expert, (ha! to say the least) but in my view, they are downplaying the enormity of this current disaster when they try to compare it past floods. If it were accurate reporting, they would admit never before in recorded history have they seen floods like this? And yes Jan, this climate change is beginning to turn it's ugly head and make life here very "iffy". We had a paradise here......we messed in our nest.

    • 1 year ago
  • JanforGore
    • +1
      JanforGore  
    • queenofit:

      I agree. to see floods of this magnitude after all they have done to build levees, flood walls, etc, is very telling, and yes I do think they are downplaying this because they never even say the words climate change in these reports if you notice (because many of these networks' sponsors are oil companies.) I don't know how many people will have to die or how bad it will have to get before they do, but as you do I sure see this as a sign that we have entered that period of consequences, and we are woefully unprepared for it because we were too busy bickering over the cause rather than working to do something about it.

    • 1 year ago
  • queenofit
    • +1
      queenofit  
    • JanforGore:

      I have been looking at [photos] of the devastation, not just the farmlands (if that wasn't enough) but the infrastructure; roads and bridges. Not only are businesses and home being destroyed, but power, water (drinking) and other necessities. This carnage is all along the "mighty Mississippi" and reaching miles on both sides, things are becoming uninhabitable. It will take huge amounts of federal dollars to help rebuild. Now this comes at a time when budgets are being slashed, GOOD PAYING jobs are harder than ever to find. If this is not a brutal attack on our country, tell me what is??? We need to bring our troops home, we need to use some of the "2 million dollars a day" we spend in killing toward investing in our own welfare here in united states. Enough is enough!

    • 1 year ago
  • JanforGore
  • JanforGore
  • JanforGore
  • JanforGore
    • +4
      JanforGore  

    • Because of this also look for oxygen levels to decrease further in the Gulf due to nitrogen runoff from farmland that has been swamped. This will also impact food prices even more. Bread in my local store is already near 4.00 a loaf. It is about the same price as a gallon of gas.

    • 1 year ago
  • artemis6
  • Gravity_Man
    • +1
      Gravity_Man  
    • JanforGore:

      Eat bread more slowly and there's always a loaf in the refrigerator when you open the door! Eating food slower eliminates extra trips to the grocery store! haha I got this thing IN DA BAG. Saving gasoline, always food in the refrigerator, haha yeah!!!

      It doesn't work so good for orange juice though. You can only add so much water to OJ and still call it Orange.

      Superman! Where are you?! The river is wide and the dollar very narrow. Save Jimmy AND Lois! Hmm. Calling out to Comic Book superheroes never works rats. Superman is in the box, acting like he's losing his powers making anguished faces, while everybody OUT HERE is losing their homes, can't drive fuel price too high, this is awful.

      $1.5 trillion spent on Entertainment/Movies in 2010 whew, wish we had some o' that back now. I could stuff it in the refrigerator, next to the bread I don't eat and the orange juice I don't drink.

      But it is the best bread they sell Ha Ha HA !!!

      Think I'll not pay for any movies in 2011. No one will call me stupid for spending money on movies this year! Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha !!!!!!! Green Acres Re-Runs, from Netflix YEAH !!!!!!!

    • 1 day ago
  • queenofit
    • +2
      queenofit  
    • Image
    • JanforGore:

      Paradise lost....? Seriously, we are responsible for much of this and still we continue sheeple along. There is so much more to the destruction of our farm lands when we see floods of this magnitude, the precious top layer of our soil is being washing down to dead gulf. I wonder how far this has to go before we realize we have to change things in order to live here? I keep saying "the corporation" is the problem, but someone reminded me recently that is a cop out. Corporations are run by people, greedy profit seeking heads of big business and their the owners of corporate stocks, who demand to see profits. No, me saying corporation is the easy way of referring to what is really mankind sucking up our natural resources so they can live in luxury. Top 1 Percent Control 42 Percent of Financial Wealth in the U.S. so says; http://www.mybudget360.com/top-1-percent-control-42-percent-of-financial-wealth-...

      I realize everyone grows up wanting to have it better than their parents had it, unfortunately this is not the country we had even 50 years ago. There is no American dream right now, this is a nightmare and unless we can somehow manage to garner enough cooperation between the great number of us who live below the middle class dream and agree to help each other, this is not going to change. No one wants to admit they are not going to get their piece of the pie. (i fear) I must tell you on a personal level I shrunk my footprint several years ago, and it is not that bad. Not sure I am making much of a point here, delicate topic for sure.

    • 1 year ago
  • JanforGore
    • +3
      JanforGore  
    • queenofit:

      Yes, we are literally starving ourselves. The erosion of topsoil needed to grow food is a major crisis globally and we are virtually ignoring it and we will pay for it. And though I try to be hopeful, yes, the dream has died as far as I am concerned. And it isn't just corporations, it is politicians and their followers on all sides who do nothing every day but throw acid at each other that has ruined this country. I am so sick of the political vitriol and right wing/left wing war that I don't even want to vote, or hear from a politician, or read it here or anywhere else. We will not be able to gain any headway here in making this country any better for our children if we continue to spend all of our time in rancor doing nothing but trying to one up the opponent in the media just to gain points while the corporations get away with taking it all from behind the scenes. So in essence what we see unfolding in this country now even with these floods is a result of political and corporate malfeasance, and we are a part of that too by perpetuating it.

    • 1 year ago
  • wolfess
    • 0
      wolfess  
    • queenofit:

      Speaking of your footprint -- I have found a good natural weedkiller (vinegar and dishsoap) but I need a good natural fertilizer for my backyard because I have dogs that I don't want to harm with traditional fertilizer. I've looked online and haven't really found anything that really grabs me. I'm planting a garden this year for the first time in decades (mostly because I have areas in the backyard that don't have grass and I figure this would be an easy way to fill those in :-).
      Last year our house burned down and before we could get the lawn mowed the grass was 'as high as an elephant's eye' and I'm still dealing with that this year. It needs fertilizer, but as I wrote above, I don't want anything that will hurt my schnauzers. So ... do you have a 'secret fertilizer weapon' that you use that is easy to create, and does the job reasonably fast????

    • 1 year ago
  • queenofit
    • 0
      queenofit  
    • Image
    • wolfess:

      Yes, vinegar and dishsoap works well, I have even been able to kill poison ivy using it. In years past (don't have a yard right now) I used a good organic fertilizer (google will give lots of options) and wow! it was wonderful, the great thing about organic (natural organisms) fertilizers, they create a beautiful lawn and require much less water to keep them healthy. The way synthetic (chemical) fert work, they cause the roots to come closer to the top of soil, and then comes disease, etc., while organic fert will help roots bury deep inside soil, protecting roots from disease and helping roots to stay moist.

      A great organic fertilizer for your veggie or ornamental garden is sheep manure and peat moss. Make sure you let the sheep manure dry out before applying or it will burn up your plants. :)

      So sorry to hear your you house burning, that is horrible. Also, I know about tall grass, when I visit my sister in Arkansas, that yard of hers is large and requires almost constant mowing. Hot and humid most of the time so mowing is a dreaded job. Good luck with your new house/yard! Organic fertilizer will be safe for your dogs, as it not made with chemicals, it is made with living matter, so it will not harm kids or animals. Hope this helps you some! I ran across product called "chickty Doo Doo Organic" seems it has good reviews. http://www.yardlover.com/chickity-doo-doo-organic-fertilizer-40-lb-bag

    • 1 year ago
  • JanforGore
  • wolfess
    • 0
      wolfess  
    • queenofit:

      Thank you so much for this info -- after I log off of current I am going to look up chickty doo doo and see if I can buy some online.
      My next project (in the next 2 weeks b4 it gets too hot) is to power wash the deck and restain it. I was seriously pleased the firemen got the fire out b4 it spread to the deck; now all I have to do is sand off some of the burn spots and give it a good power washing
      :-) but I want to do all of it b4 it gets horribly hot.

    • 1 year ago
  • wolfess
    • 0
      wolfess  
    • JanforGore:

      Thanks Jan -- I'm kinda new/old at this-- a million years ago on a galaxy far far away I had a garden in my backyard (grew enuf tomatoes to can my own catsup :-), and I've grown herbs every summer since we bought this house (9 years ago) but my husband got me a rototiller for my birthday (don't laugh, I was thrilled) so I decided the best thing I could do with it is grow another garden, but I needed some 'healthy' fertilizer since the garden will be in the same space with my schnauzers.

    • 1 year ago
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