Hurricane Ida forces Mississippi River to reverse flow

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

Storm surge and strong winds from Hurricane Ida stopped the flow of the Mississippi River near New Orleans on Sunday and actually caused it to reverse -- something the US Geological Survey says is "extremely uncommon."

Ida made landfall near Port Fourchon, Louisiana, early Sunday afternoon as an extremely dangerous Category 4 hurricane with winds of 150 mph, the National Hurricane Center (NHC) said. The hurricane arrived on the 16th anniversary of the historically devastating Hurricane Katrina.

"I remember, off hand, that there was some flow reversal of the Mississippi River during Hurricane Katrina, but it is extremely uncommon," Scott Perrien, a supervising hydrologist with the USGS Lower Mississippi Gulf Water Science Center in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, told CNN.

Perrien noted that the river level on Sunday rose about 7 feet due to storm surge pushing up the river at the USGS gauge, located in Belle Chasse, about 20 miles south of New Orleans in southeastern Louisiana.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/weather/topstories/hurricane-ida-forces-mississippi-river-to-reverse-flow/ar-AANSAtG

[PortTack]

1. More flooding up river!

[Igel]

3. Possibly.

Depends on the levees. Some of which are naturally deposited.

The Mississippi has such a slight gradient that historically in most years it reversed flow at least once. It wasn't until recently, after we messed with it, that it was "truly" predictably never reversed.