Mississippi River so low, cargo barges run aground

www.msnbc.msn.com...

MEMPHIS, Tenn. — A year after the Mississippi River swelled to near-historic proportions and flooded farms and homes from Illinois to Louisiana, the level along the waterway's southern half is so low that cargo barges have run aground and their operators have been forced to lighten their loads.

I saw this on CNN earlier today. Just a year after major flooding, some parts of the river are almost hitting their record low levels because of the drought in the region.

Wide, sandy strips of shoreline usually invisible even in the low season are now exposed, shrinking the river's width and affecting the way tow captains navigate.

Aside from that, the best coping mechanism is careful navigation. With the river so low, the channels are shallower and narrower, presenting problems for barges loaded with coal, grain, iron, steel, sand, gravel and more. They must reduce their loads to avoid bottoming out and take extra care not to collide when passing another string of barges in the thinner channel.

Also, low water at docks and terminals makes it more difficult to load or unload material, as ships have trouble getting close enough to docks. Companies must get permits from the Army Corps to dredge near their docks to find deeper places to load and unload

I havent been able to find out how much money this is costing yet. Hopefully rain comes to the rescue soon. I also wonder how this is affecting the fish. When I was a kid, I loved fishing in the Mississippi. Havent been in awhile but hopefully I'll be able to make it back someday soon.

"The preacher man says it's the end of time..."
"And the Mississippi River, she's a going dry..."
"I live out in the woods ya see,, the woman and the kids and the dogs and me."
"I got a shotgun, a rifle, and a fourwheel drive, and a countryboy can survive."

Let's see, that was about 1982... the Mississippi was going dry then too... maybe Hank will cut another classic anthem for all the country folks.

missisissipearing!!!

Oh wow, maybe they can make a bunch of harnesses for the Asian carp and the carp can pull the barges out

reply to post by AlreadyGone


They just want us to drain the great lakes into the river so they can get a cure for their temporary problem. Lowering the levels of the lakes for something like that is the stupidest thing our country can do. Freshwater reserves are important for a nation. Start leaving it out and everyone will start watering their lawns and wasting water instead of conservation.

reply to post by buni11687

Great thread and despite some attempts at humor here the costs to us all here in North America will be staggering.

Bad crops and bad transportation equal misery for the consumer which just happens to be everyone reading this thread.

We live on Lake Huron and the ships that transport have had to lighten up their loads as well, marinas for private boats are hurting because and deep draft boats cannot possibly dock now.

We should all be concerned with the severe weather fluctuations we are now seeing constantly.

S&F
Regards, Iwinder

lol nature is nature, by the remarks here it is like you guys have never seen the level of the river fluctuate. Nature happens just leave it alone and nature will take care of it.

The levels on that river can vary wildly from one stretch to another, so I don't offer this to challenge the OP but simply to show at least in St Louis, it's at a navigable level. The photo strip along the bottom has pics every few of the river and barge traffic with the most recent being a few days ago. I stopped going back at March and this area looked about the same.

St Louis Webcam of the Mississippi and barge traffic.

....and I'm sure it takes the Corps of Engineers some interesting tricks to keep it that way during this kind of season.

S/F

We've had some major flooding in my area in the past few days.... excessive flooding. Our waterways are tributaries to the Ohio River and it's a tributary to the Mississippi, so the levels should be increasing over the next week or so as these flood waters run off.

Originally posted by PurpleChiten
We've had some major flooding in my area in the past few days.... excessive flooding. Our waterways are tributaries to the Ohio River and it's a tributary to the Mississippi, so the levels should be increasing over the next week or so as these flood waters run off.

Just asking here, have you had really dry weather there like we have here( Southern Ontario)
I mean in the past month or so?.......Would that mean more runoff because the ground is so dry or would it mean less runoff because all the water is getting sucked up?

Not picking a fight just asking here.
Regards, Iwinder

PS I hope your theory is correct for the benefit of us all.

Originally posted by Iwinder

Just asking here, have you had really dry weather there like we have here( Southern Ontario)
I mean in the past month or so?.......Would that mean more runoff because the ground is so dry or would it mean less runoff because all the water is getting sucked up?

Not picking a fight just asking here.
Regards, Iwinder

PS I hope your theory is correct for the benefit of us all.

Yes, it's been extremely dry and very, very hot!

It should mean more runoff since the ground is unable to absorb all of it, especially since we've had a lot of localized flooding. It has come down very quickly and flooded the river banks here so all of that will flow into the Ohio then into the Mississippi, so it may alleviate some of the problem.... we can only hope!

reply to post by buni11687


A good opportunity to go treasure hunting with some metal detectors...

I actually live on the Mississippi River, midway between STL and Memphis. Perhaps tomorrow I shall go down to the riverfront and have a looksee. Maybe get some pics, though I would have nothing to compare them to. Living here, I just take it for granted...not something that I go look at everyday