Problems along the Mississippi river, a firsthand photo account.

reply to post by Gridrebel


Thanks, when I see it dropping I check it several times a day.

I have some good news to report.

The river this morning is at 4.04 feet at Thebes. Last time the water level started to increase I had hopes it was the turning point and I was wrong. Again though I and hoping and praying this is the turning point. I do not expect the river to be at normal levels for some months though. Seeing it start to increase on a regular basis though would be nice.


Raist

The river seems to be staying at 4.04 feet at Thebes. We might be starting to see a slow turn aroundbto hivher river stages soon.

At least this is my hopes.

Raist

Thebes is back down to 3.82 feet again. While I might be wrong about it staying up at least it has been staying open. I feel certain that as long as it stays above 3.5 it will stay open. I am not sure they will keep it open if it goes below 3.5. The lowest point I seen it was 3.66 or something like that.

I still plan to update the depth at Thebes from time to time until it is safely out of the range of closing.


Raist

With recent rains Thebes is back to 4.4 feet today. More heavy rains are expected throughout the weekend with a chance of snow/ice on Sunday.

Raist

Good news, as of this point the river at Thebes is at 5.89 feet. The rain has been coming pretty good today and is expected into tonight and tomorrow. Still a chance of wintery weather coming tomorrow as well.

At this point due to the drought we are under a flash flood watch. If things continue on this pace we will be seeing improvements.

Raist

I expect the river will drop from the current depth, but this morning at Thebes the river sits at 9.35 feet.

This is good news for sure. This spring (at least last spring) should be back to normal or near normal stages.

Raist

reply to post by Raist


Wonderful news Raist. Good to see things are hopefully back on track. Thanks for the updates.

Originally posted by Raist
reply to post by METACOMET

 

I think we screw up more trying to fix nature than if we would just let it fix itself.

I cannot believe this is all due to drought.

Raist

That was my first thought also.

It's almost as though it's draining out somewhere underneath or something. It just seems like there is more going on with this than what we are being told, and the increased activity around the new madrid would make one wonder.

If it keeps rising it would be nice to see after pictures.. Then we can really see how the great mighty mississip works..

Have before and after pictures..

reply to post by Gridrebel


I do hope it is back on track. I do expect it will drop in the next week, I mean we are still in drought conditions after all, but it would be nice if it stayed up.

Raist

reply to post by Jusvistn


I do believe the steps taken in 2011 to ease flooding is somewhat responsible. I could be wrong but it would make sense.

Raist

reply to post by gangdumstyle


I will certainly do that. I have a few that are old but they are mostly background focused on my car. I like using the river as a background. If it stays up I will try to get a few in the next few days I have off work.


Raist

At this time tonight the river at Thebes i at 11.4 feet. It has risen quite a bit in the last few days. I hope it stays near this level and does not go much lower, only time will tell though.

Raist

Yesterday morning Thebes was sitting at above 13 feet. Today at this time it is back down to 11.55 feet. I cannot say that I did not expect it to start to drop again. I mean the river moves very fast even when it is low.

I do hope that it stays up though. Seeing it drop down to depths of 6 feet or so is bad. Driving past one area I can even tell it is up. It is nice to see more water in the river. I did not make it out to get photos the past two days, perhaps I can get a few more this weekend if it stays up a bit.

Raist

The river at Thebes is sitting at 12.19 feet right now. This is starting to show promise that it is on track to recovery.

Raist

reply to post by Raist


Great news! Hopefully, the water will stay around this time, and the river can start to recover.

And I agree, about the possible cause of the river being low this year may be from things that were done last time it flooded. Didn't they blow out some levees or take some emergency steps to ease flooding? Was everything fixed afterwards?

The worst flood I ever saw was in St. Louis in 1993, as the company I worked for was opening a casino river boat that year. We thought people were going to have to swim to the boat.

reply to post by PacificBlue


Yeah they blew some levees, and some of them were rebuilt (taller,stronger, different) not sure about all of them though. I cannot say I recall hearing much about it after a few levees they sort of went quiet on things after that. Much like they are now for the most part.

I am not sure why the river does not get more attention than it does.


Raist

The river seems to be raising a bit more again but leveling off by not raising too fast. Right now it is at 12.79 at Thebes and 12.05 at Cape Girardeau. Normally Thebes sits just a bit lower than Cape Girardeau so I suspect it is going to equal out soon.

The way the river has been this past week I really think we are on the way to recovery now. Of course I said that before and jumped the gun, but the depths were not this deep for as long either. We will see how it plays out over the next week I guess.


Raist

I will be getting out to get some photos soon, it has just been too cold for my taste to be down by the water with the wind.

The river has been staying up from where it was when I first started the thread though. This is very good news, it does show we are on a slow raod to recovery.

Today the river sits at 11.7 feet at Thebes and 9.52 feet at Cape Girardeau. I am not sure why lately Thebes has been sitting deeper then Cape Girardeau, but normally Thebes is the lower of the two. Regardless the depth has been staying up for the most part keeping the river open. The only problems I could see at this point would be ice and ice flow. I am not sure how much the hulls of barges can take, but I am sure with the still lower levels of water there is bound to be ice toward the north.

I still believe that by late spring early summer the river will start to near its normal depth and start to close in on just over normal depths.

Raist

In a drastic turn of events the river has dropped several feet. I can only think that freezing weather and lack of rain.

I have not heard that they closed the river so that is a great thing. Sadly though as of right now the river is at 6.1 feet in Cape Girardeau and 5.43 feet at Thebes. I am not sure what the closing point at Thebes would be, I was sure 5.5 feet would be the lower limit. At this point I would imagine the barges are nearly dragging bottom.

I am pretty surprised the river dropped this much in such a short time. It took months to get this low before and now it is sitting lower than I have seen before in just days. I am going to stop getting my hopes up as it seems just when I think we are at a turning point it drops again.

Raist