Mississippi River flow reversing due to hurricane "extremely uncommon," USGS says

[Nevilledog]

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Ram Ramgopal
@RamCNN
Earlier today, the Mississippi River reversed its flow because of the hurricane, an “extremely uncommon” occurrence, according to USGS
Live updates: Hurricane Ida path, Louisiana landfall and news coverage

Mississippi River flow reversing due to hurricane "extremely uncommon," USGS says
Storm surge and strong winds stopped the flow of the Mississippi River on Sunday near New Orleans and actually caused the flow to reverse – something the United States Geological Survey said is...
cnn.com
7:56 PM · Aug 29, 2021

https://www.cnn.com/us/live-news/hurricane-ida-updates-08-29-21/h_9b4de8eba6b5f1d95dd15a871cb258f0

Storm surge and strong winds stopped the flow of the Mississippi River on Sunday near New Orleans and actually caused the flow to reverse – something the United States Geological Survey said is “extremely uncommon.”

“I remember, offhand, 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 rose about 7 feet due to the storm surge pushing up the river at the USGS gauge, located in Belle Chasse, about 20 miles south of New Orleans in southeastern Louisiana.

“During that time, the flow of the river slowed from about 2 feet per second down to about half a foot per second in the other direction,” Perrien said.

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[Hugh_Lebowski]

1. Interesting anomaly, but does it matter in some way that's non-academic?

IOW does this reversal of flow, in and of itself ... matter?

I mean, apart from the obvious ... Ida is a very powerful storm pushing a lot of water inland.

Does it mean a terrible disaster is imminent or the like?

[2naSalit]

2. It could do significant harm...

From what I can imagine, there is critical infrastructure that may not withstand the reversal of flow like some of the levees. Another problem, currently, is that some 22 barges have become untethered and are loose on the river along with a couple ferry boats that I heard about somewhere. Should all that end up being pushed up river, stuff can crash into and do some serious damage to levees and refinery facilities and other port infrastructure. A lot could happen with this condition.

This is not good at all.