Problems along the Mississippi river, a firsthand photo account.

reply to post by Raist


Not again.

However, some good news is that more storms are expected that will cause the river to rise again.

Mississippi River set to rise quickly as storms drop rain; excavating moves to Grand Tower

Tuesday, January 29, 2013 ~ Updated 8:40 PM
Upcoming storms are expected to cause the Mississippi River at Cape Girardeau to rise by approximately 9 feet by Sunday, according to the National Weather Service.

The river gauge reading at Cape Girardeau was just over 6 feet on Tuesday -- by Sunday, it is expected to reach 15 feet. Severe storms were expected to hit Southeast Missouri late Tuesday into Wednesday, dropping large amounts of rain.

reply to post by PacificBlue


Thanks for the link. Glad to see you are following this as well.

We got some pretty heavy storms last night and more winter weather is expected tomorrow. However, I am going to keep my hopes low this time. I will let it stay up a month instead of a week before I start to feel to positive about it


Raist

reply to post by Raist


I have kind of been watching the drought, and some of the larger rivers. It seem like with the Mississippi lately it is either feast or famine.

reply to post by PacificBlue


When it goes to feast it does not seem to stay long for sure We seem to mostly be famine.

The river is back up though. Right now Thebes is at 9.98 feet. While Cape Girardeau is at 11.25 feet. At this point I have decided to just believe it is going to drop again though, until I see far more spring time rains.


Raist

At this moment the river at Thebes sits at 14.12 feet and at Cape Girardeau 14.48 feet. I have to say the river looks much more healthy than it did. But for now I will hold my hopes back that it will stay up.

I know I keep saying I will get some more photos soon and I still will. Life is pretty crazy and the only way I can really keep up with the river is the app on my phone called RiverFlows. I will though make it out to get some updated photos, as soon as things get a bit warmer and settled down.

Raist

First let me say I am very sorry it has taken so long to do some updating on this there has just been a lot going on.

Here are some photos of the river from the same areas as before only here the river is sitting at around 14 feet. These photos are from a month or so ago.

First here is the boat ramp in Cape Girardeau. As you might recall from the photos in the first posts the boat ramp was unusable due to it being locked off from the water. You might also recall that I was able to walk out into what was nearly the middle of the river at this area.









These next photos are from Thebes. You will be able to look up the river and see the railroad bridge that crosses the river. As you might recall from the first photos there were a lot of rocks that were Ordovician in age some known as the Kimmswick limestone but I forget what the formation was that was below the bridge. Regardless as you can see from these photos no rocks are visible and I certainly cannot get to them any longer. For the most part in these photos the sand beach is underwater as well.
















Edit: These last three are from Cape Rock park area. If you recall the sand bar here reached nearly across the river and the barges were waiting for each other and going through one at a time.








At this point the news is even better. Well in a way. There are a few places close by that are now worried about flooding. Near by the river has reached its flood stage. I am happy to say though that my prediction of the rivers depth coming back as it has, has come true. It makes me happy to see the river back at the deeper stages, even if I cannot reach as many rocks to search for fossils.

The current stages are 31.98 feet in Cape Girardeau and 31.31 feet at Thebes.

I will do what I can to get more photos of the river at the depths it is now. It might take me a bit to get them posted but I will get them, just please bare with me as life has become quite active at this point. Hopefully soon things will ease up a bit as things warm up so that I can get some fossiling in

Raist

Okay, so if you have been following this thread you will recall that at one point not a few months back the river reached a stage below 6'. As I mentioned later in the thread I said I noticed that every other year there seems to be higher waters (often with flooding) with the following year having lower waters (such as last year where it reached record lows).

Well the time has come to have the flooding again. At this point the waters at Cape Girardeau are 41.85 feet and at Thebes 40.84 feet. While this might not seem to be troubles it is as troubling as the low waters in terms of commerce. For instance at this point the rail system along the Mississippi river is now closed down due to water being over the tracks (at some point 4-5 feet over the tracks). The barges are able to move more freely in distance away from each other though in some spots it seems the tops of them are getting closer to the bottoms of the bridges along the river.

Here are a few photos as well as a link at the end to all the photos from recently at 40+ feet, back when it was at 14 feet, and back when the river was at its all time low, so that you can see the difference in all of them and you can also look back through the thread to see them and have each spot named as well.

In this very first photo you can see the front of my car and a view across the river. If you recall there was a sandbar that was very visible on the East side of the river (the Illinois side). When the river was at its lowest the bar reached almost all the way across the river and barges had to go through on at a time. At this point there is no visible sandbar. The following photos were taken from Cape Rock park area.

In this photo you can see exactly where the barges were waiting for one another in the first posts of this thread.

The railroad tracks are about 4-5 feet below the water at this point as well as the rocks which I stood on to take photos in the past.

For obvious reasons the roadway is closed.

Next I take you to the boat ramp in Cape Girardeau, which if you recall at the lowest I was able to stand in about the middle of where the river should be. Okay, I really cannot take you there, but I will get you as close as I can.

In honesty I really cannot get close at all. The area is pretty flooded.

Here is a bridge that is near the ramp that is under water. This is also a creek that flows into the river. As you can see you cannot distinguish between the river and the creek.

Continued....

Okay back behind the blurry brown sign is the boat ramp. The sign is blurry because well I am not a great photographer. I was using a point and shoot and it was dark and raining. But you can make out the sign well enough. If you look past it you can see a railroad sign well go further behind that and you can get to the boat ramp.

For obvious reasons the streets are closed.

Next we go to Thebes, which if you recall was the problem area during the lowest point and where they started dredging rock from the bottom to add a massive 6 inches of depth to the river at a cost of millions.

At this point I cannot get to the area which I took photos from at the lowest for more than obvious reasons. Though there were barges traveling in the water in a spot I once stood.

Finally I will end with the Thebes train bridge. As you might recall I was able to go under the bridge and search for fossils. At this point I cannot even get close to the bridge as the roadway that I use to get there is covered with water.

A closer shot of the road that goes under the bridge.

Here are a few closer shots of the bridge so that you can look back at others and see the difference in depth.

It should be noted that some of the houses at Thebes are on stilts so that the house remiand dry while they use a boat to get to their cars.

s383.photobucket.com...

Raist

great update....I like those barge pictures.....

It seems that flood stage is 30 feet at Cape Girardeau. At this point we are sitting at just over 10 feet above flood stage being at just over 40 feet right now. There is talk that the river will crest in a few days south of Cape Girardeau.

Of course now there continues to be flooding problems along the river with lots more rain to come. It rained all weekend just a few days ago with another full weekend of rain to come. There just does not seem to be a middle ground for the river.

Raist

reply to post by GBP/JPY


Thanks.

Yeah I seen the barg and thought it would make a cool photo.
Glad you like it.

Raist

Thanks for the update!

I hope this isn't a stupid question, but with the river so high now, are they having any problems with the barges getting under any bridges?

reply to post by chiefsmom


I have not heard yet that they are having problems. Though (and you might be able to tell) in the one photo of the barge passing under the train bridge it looks to be getting fairly close. I would imagine there are a few more bridges along the way that also have a closing gap on them.

From time to time barges randomly hit a bridge, it happened just last week. I am not sure of the damage though as it was only mentioned in a very short message. I cannot say that the rising waters did not help to drive it into the bridge either (it hit a pier not the bottom of the bridge).

From this article it seems that high water does not have as much effect on them.
www.marketplace.org...

It read that with high waters the biggest problem is the current pushing them into things. I assume that had something to do with the barge I just mentioned.

Right now Cape Girardeau sits at 40.75 feet with Thebes at 40.0 feet. I guess the biggest problem now caused by the high waters is just the railroad being closed as well as some streets along with what ever property damage that comes with this. I imagine that some of the houses near the flooding at getting basements with water coming through small cracks in the concrete.

Raist

The river levels at Cape Girardeau and Thebes are still over 39", with what looks like more rain this weekend as well. At this point the rain has stopped but the sky is still plenty gray. Not to mention the temps have dropped making it cold.

We have been getting a pretty constant rain of three or more days a week lately. Of course we are getting warnings for flooding (big surprise with streets closed due to water being over them lol).

I am going to say the waters will be pretty high until at least July (maybe not with the flooding across the streets, but we will see). I will continue to post photos every so often so that people get an idea of the water levels we are seeing.

Raist

reply to post by Raist


Cool pics. Glad to see that the river is up, and hope that it does not get too high. Funny thing is that earlier in your thread I said how much rain we had here in Oregon, and now it is dry and hot, not the usual weather for this time of year. It is almost too dry. Now you need to send some water our way.

reply to post by PacificBlue


I would love to send some your way

All this rain is making my vacation a bit pointless if I cannot get out and fossil hunt. I am hoping the rain lets up soon and starts to come on a normal basis not almost all week basis


Raist

Well the river dropped down to above 30" and streets and roadways opened up again. However last week the river reached over 40" again. Yesterday the river stage at Cape Girardeau was just over 44' today it has dropped to just above 43". Of course this means that roadways are closed again.


Not only are roadways closed again but also so are the railways through the areas near the river. Of course they had the added problems with the collision causing a derailment and overpass collapse last month. It seems the railways are having a bad year the last few months. They closed for flooding, then for a bit because of the derailment, and now again due to flooding.

Raist