Flooding to force closing of Mississippi River

[Hobarticus]

Source: Associated Press

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) - The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers says a 250-mile stretch of the Mississippi River is expected to close later this week because of flooding. That will bring barge traffic to a halt. The corps plans to close locks and dams from Fulton, Illinois to Clarksville, Missouri possibly as early as Thursday.

A spokesman says the closure could last up to two weeks.

The only lock and dam in that stretch of the river that won't be affected is at Keokuk, Iowa, because the gates are high enough that they shouldn't be affected, he said.

Industry officials say the closing will stop barges carrying everything from grain and coal to steel and fertilizer.

Read more: http://www.kwwl.com/Global/story.asp?S=8453866

---

That'll sting...you'll be hearing more about this, soon

[Trajan]

1. Sounds like a good reason ....

To boost gasoline and grocery prices ....

Hell yeah ! ....

[Hobarticus]

2. Count on it...

Once the river opens again, traffic will be backed up for weeks yet.

[moonbatmax]

3. I Wonder...

...Will the bridges be next?

I remember 1993.

I was living in Quincy, IL, at the time. It was the last city with bridges open between Davenport, IA, and St. Louis, at least until the levees on the Missouri side failed. Nasty story about that...

[ryanmuegge]

4. Remember that gas station in Quincy that was on fire that summer?

I just remember the image of flames rocketing up from the water. I'll never forget that.

[krkaufman]

8. Yep. That made the TV news all the way up in Michigan.

The above-ground gas tanks blew big when they were slammed-into by a barge that had come through the broken levee.

As a followup, the same station had another problem with their gas tanks during a later flood. Hoping to prevent a similar explosion, the owner emptied the tanks prior to flooding... and so the tanks became exceedingly large floats... and were ripped from the ground when the floodwaters came.

[krkaufman]

7. Hey!!! That's my hometown you're talking about.

I was supposed to come back for a golf outing that weekend, but couldn't make it down. (I was a little bummed, 'cause I would've liked to have helped sandbag.) The levee break and the gas station explosion made the news all the way up in Michigan.

The "nasty story"...

Remember James R. Scott from Quincy, Illinois? Or perhaps you recognize him by his newer name, #1001364, an inmate at the maximum security Jefferson City (Missouri) Correctional Center? You'll most likely remember him as the man who broke a levee in July 1993 to strand his wife in Missouri so he could party in Illinois without her. James Scott remains the only man in Missouri history to be arrested, charged, tried, convicted and sentenced of Intentionally Causing a Catastrophe, a Class A Felony. Nobody died when the levee at West Quincy, Missouri, broke and submerged 14,000 acres of prime farmland, yet Scott was convicted on circumstantial evidence for causing the breach, and he was sentenced to life in prison, the maximum penalty under the statute.

He was tried twice and convicted twice, first in 1994, but that case was overturned because of prosecutorial misconduct. At his second trial in 1998, a Hannibal, Missouri, court -- a town that was also claimed by the Great Flood -- found him guilty again. Much was made of the case at the time. The overriding question was whether James Scott caused one levee to fail (even though more than 1,000 levees ultimately failed during the Great Flood), or whether he was merely an easy scapegoat for a community raging at its devastation.

... but I wasn't aware that there was a book written about the guy...

Damned to Eternity: The Story of the Man Who They Said Caused the Flood

[dipsydoodle]

5. I can't quite grasp this.

Are they shutting the river to traffic or are they also shutting off the feeder streams ? When they do this on the River Thames it just moves flooding from one location to another.

[minnesota_liberal]

6. What about the fish and frogs?

And 500 miles of police tape won't be pretty either.

:wow:

[Khaotic]

9. Media Always Gets This Wrong

The Corps of Engineers CAN'T shut down the river, they can only shut down their locks.

It takes the Coast Guard to actually shut down the river.

If someone wants to launch into the river via a boat ramp and mess around in the river filled w/ debris and risk their lives, then so be it.

The Corps can't do squat.

In a nutshell, Mother Nature is shutting down the locks in that it becomes impossible for the Corps to operate them.

When the water level is the same below a lock as it is above the lock, no more lockages ... it's just toooooo dangerous.

The tows have a hard enough time navigating through the locks on an average day, but try it during flood conditions with the increased current.

When the water level exceeds the ability of a lock to operate, game over.

But like I said ... if Joe Q. Public wants to launch his fishing boat and see how he fairs in the flood waters, the Corps won't be stopping him.

The only time I can remember the river actually being "closed" was by the Coast Guard when Al Gore came down the river on his presidential bid in 2000. They closed the portion of the river (or pool) he was traveling in. When I say closed, I mean closed. No other traffic ... I don't care how little your boat is. A kid in a Sea Doo would have been told to high tail it if he was caught.

Main point ... the Corps of Engineers can't shut down the river.

[Jeff In Milwaukee]

10. You say potato....

If the locks are not operational, then the river is effectively shut down for the purposes of commercial traffic.

[Khaotic]

15. Commerical Traffic ...

sure, you could say that.

If commerical traffic is trying to get from NOLA to St. Paul, then they can't.

If they're trying to get to St. Louis ... they can.

As far as fishing and recreation, no problem, they just can't navigate through the specific locks that are closed.

It makes a big difference to the people who are using the river, but are not transiting through a lock that's not closed.

They are NOT all closing.

While the media seems to need everything in a nutshell, logic and truth doesn't.

[kickysnana]

12. Very sloppy headline should have been "River Traffic" or as you say "Locks" n/t

[bluesmail]

11. Severe flooding in Indianapolis

good thing the military is there.

[ensho]

13. huge amount of flooding victums became newly poor

states, counties, cities, towns resources used up

crop land in chaos

for them survival is local

and now the Mississippi is closed for business.

[Khaotic]

14. It's not closed

Geezzzzz

Just because a person can't navigate through a lock doesn't mean the river is "closed."

Try to tell a fisherman or a person recreating on the river that it's closed ... they freak.

The river is not closed ... period.

Locks close, the river doesn't (unless the Coast Guard closes it to all navigation).

[ensho]

16. you missed the "for business" part

barges = business