The Barge traffic was halted by the lowest water levels for a decade

The Mississippi River has been halted by floods for two days at a time since the outbreak of the H1N1 flu epidemic

It is crazy to think that the Mississippi River could flood when it was at a record low last fall. How quickly the tables can change.

As of Friday, the Coast Guard reports that there are 144 vessels and 2,253 barges queued up and waiting to get through two stretches of the river where traffic has been halted – one near Memphis, the other just north of Vicksburg, Mississippi. While the Coast Guard statement said it hopes to resume traffic again as soon as late Friday, it couldn’t say for certain when that would happen.

The US Coast Guard is working with the Army Corps of Engineers to bring the waterway to one-way traffic when it is safe to do so.

“From what we hear from members, that has resulted in record levels of barge rates, and that’s being driven by the fact that there is limited traffic,” Seyfert said.

This is one more roadblock that US supply chains still have to overcome, nearly two and a half years after the start of the H1N1 flu epidemic. West Coast ports, where most of the nation’s imports arrive by container ship, are still congested, too.

While a freight railroad strike was narrowly averted last month, they admit that they are failing to provide the levels of service that they need because of their labor shortages.

Drought Monitor Observations of the Colorado River Basin: Two Months of Dry Streaming Water and the Failure of an Underwater Levee

The Colorado River basin has historically low levels due to the long dry spell in the western United States. The supply of water for western states is critical to the success of hydroelectric power.

Another dry week across much of the Central and Southern US has led to “intensifying drought conditions across much of the Great Plains, Mississippi Valley, and Midwest,” according to the latest update from the US Drought Monitor.

Use the slider to compare imagery taken of the Mississippi River at Memphis, Tennessee, on March 1, 2022, (left) and then again on October 2, 2022 (right). The images are natural color images and have been captured by a satellite.

The University of Missouri’s weather station in Columbia had less than 6 inches of rain between June 2 and September 27. That is more than 11 inches below normal and the driest such period for that location in 23 years.

A 1,500-foot wide underwater levee has been started by the US Army Corps of Engineers to prevent saltwater from pushing up the river in response to low river levels.

The corps announced last week it would dredge sediment from the bottom of the river and pile it up near Myrtle Grove, Louisiana, to create what’s known as a sill, which will act as a dam for the denser saltwater in the lower levels of the river.

The saltwater doesn’t have enough force to keep it at bay when it falls below 300,000 bpms per second. According to the US Geological Survey, the flow rate just north of the planned sill is less than 200,000 a second for the past week.

The problem usually resolves itself once there is enough rainfall upstream, Boyett said. The low flow seen in 2012 is what is unfolding right now, according to him.

“The difference is that shortly after we built the sill then, Hurricane Isaac came in and dropped 20 inches of rain in different places, and so it kind of changed the flow rather quickly on us,” Boyett said. We are looking at an area where there is not enough rain in the current forecast to change it.

Soaking Water with Plaquemines Parish. The Mississippi River Delta has seen more than 50 years of floods since Freeport, Ill., last July

For residents relying on drinking water from the Boothville facility, high levels of saltwater-related substances such as sodium and chloride have been detected, and a drinking water advisory is in effect. Plaquemines Parish officials told CNN that they have secured a reverse-osmosis machine to treat the water and remove salt and other contaminants.

“When you’re looking at the areas below the Belle Chase, the smaller water intakes that Plaquemines is using, the parish kind of has the responsibility for mitigating for that saltwater because it is a natural phenomenon,” Boyett said.

William Sweet said it would be difficult to prevent saltwater from coming to New Orleans, even though the corps expects the sill to succeed.

The Mississippi River Delta is facing climate and environmental pressures on multiple fronts, including sea level rise, land subsidence, deepening of the channel to allow more vessels and frequent flooding. Sweet says that temporarily stopping saltwater intrusion by creating sills will cost more in the future if there is no permanent fix.

This is a heavily fortified area and has levees on land and underwater to protect against flooding, Sweet told CNN.

It’s not clear how river communities will look a century from now. But most experts agree: Change is necessary to create a better and safer future. Levees are not the only things that aren’t working anymore. Some communities need to make room for the water as the flood risk increases. The time to act is now, not waiting for the next flood.

Forecasters at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration expressed concern about the increased likelihood of major spring flooding in the Upper Mississippi River Basin, particularly from the Twin Cities to St. Louis, due to rapid snowmelt.

After a torrential downpour began on Aug. 7, the Pecatonica River jumped its banks in Freeport, Ill. and flooded the basement of Laurie Thomas’ family home, nearly to the ceiling.

This latest was Freeport’s fifth major flood in just the past four years. Over the past 20 years, Thomas and her mother have been flooded at least 15 times.

The century-old record for rain in St. Louis was broken this summer. Increased rainfall overwhelmed the main water treatment facility in Jackson, Mississippi. Historic flooding left eastern Kentucky communities decimated and searching for protection against climate change.

The U.S. infrastructure was not designed for climate-related extreme weather. It’s causing economic strain, impacting quality of life, and forcing people to make hard decisions about whether to stay or leave.

The Mississippi River Basin Adapts as Climate Change Brings Extreme Rain and Floods: A Case Study of Freeport, Mississippi

Last year, the city of Freeport, with over $3 million from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, launched a program to buy and remove homes along the river and return the land to floodplains. City officials say that the average home on the east side, the historically Black part of town, is valued at around $15,000. Up to $31,000 can be offered to homeowners.

Thomas says that’s just not enough money for her mother to pick up and start over elsewhere. She and her neighbors are willing to take their chances with the river.

“People have always lived over here and there’s always been the Pecatonica [River], but lately the floods, they’ve been worse,” Thomas says. “But they’ve been worse all the time in other places too.” That’s not a reason to kick people out of their homes.”

Buyout or not, adapting to increased rainfall and flooding in the region will mean transforming river communities, like Freeport. But for these efforts to succeed, they’ll need support and substantial resources. Thomas’ family will opt out entirely if other options don’t come to mind.

Climate Central was asked by the Mississippi River Basin Ag & Water Desk to analyze fifty years of rainfall patterns, using data from the National Weather Service.

Climate change models show further increases are likely in the coming years, according to Climate Central data scientist Jen Brady.

It pours when it rains. Not only has the average yearly rainfall increased in parts of the basin, but it’s also falling harder in many places according to the Climate Central analysis.

Pat Guinan is a professor and state climatologist at the University of Missouri. Warming oceans produce more water Vapor, which can lead to more precipitation in the eastern U.S.

Guinan said recent decades have given rise to a stark divide seen across the continental U.S., with the western half of the country becoming increasingly arid and prone to drought, while the eastern half is faced with exceptional moisture, often delivered in bursts.

Source: https://www.npr.org/2022/10/18/1127966940/mississippi-river-basin-adapts-as-climate-change-brings-extreme-rain-and-floodin

Atchison County, Mo., Adapts as Climate Change Broughts Extreme Rain and Fluodin for Flood Preserving Communities

The western border of Atchison County, Mo., follows the twisting path of the Missouri River, which is part of the Mississippi River Basin. Acres of corn and soy fields once lined its shores, but after a nearby levee suffered seven breaches in the Flood of 2019, the cropland was ruined.

Instead of rebuilding the levee and returning the crops, Atchison County decided to let the floodplain be a floodplain. The levee board proposed a setback to move one of the levees to the side and restore the area to its previous state. Knee-high prairie grass now covers the open space, providing a greener, more sustainable form of flood control.

“The old way isn’t working for today’s population. That has resulted in rethinking the engineering solution versus a new look at the role nature can play,” said Laura Lightbody, project director of The Pew Charitable Trusts’ Flood-Prepared Communities project.

Research has found that these solutions successfully mitigate flooding. Permanent solutions are provided for communities in harm’s way. When paired with those buyouts, levee setbacks reduced flood risks in every studied scenario in the Mississippi River. The resulting floodplains offer opportunities for recreation, ecotourism and increased ecosystem services.

Source: https://www.npr.org/2022/10/18/1127966940/mississippi-river-basin-adapts-as-climate-change-brings-extreme-rain-and-floodin

The Mississippi River Basin needs more money, and it is time for communities to come up with their own solutions – Ms. Lightbody and the CNN Weather Brief

Lightbody said that there was more research that was making it more compelling. I think that’s the reason we are seeing more of it.

Congress has begun to order agencies to give communities more support. FEMA launched the Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities (BRIC) program in 2020 to help fortify areas before disasters strike. The FEMA will have more money for such projects this October, but it will still be less than the amount spent on disaster response in the past.

An analysis done by Headwaters Economics shows inland Mississippi River communities have received less BRIC dollars than coastal states.

Eric Letvin said that FEMA was working to make money more accessible to small towns like those in the river basin.

But the Lightbody says that communities need to come up with their own solutions. As she sees it, the federal government just doesn’t have enough money.

Bryce Gray (St. Louis Post-Dispatch), Connor Giffin (Louisville Courier Journal), Halle Parker (WWNO-New Orleans Public Radio) and Brittney J. Miller (The Gazette of Cedar Rapids) contributed reporting. The Mississippi River Basin Ag & Water Desk, which is based at the University of Missouri, has collaborated with Report for America and the Society of Environmental Journalists in order to bring this story to life.

The CNN Weather Brief, a weekly newsletter that is released on Monday, originally contained a version of this article. You can sign up here to receive them every week and during significant storms.

Minneapolis’ Snowpack During the Fourth and Fourth Snowflake Seasons: Pumps, Flood Warnings, and Planning for the Next Three Months

Minneapolis is experiencing its eighth-snowiest season on record, with 81 inches of snow, compared to its average of 51 inches. Bismarck, North Dakota and Grand Rapids, Michigan, are experiencing their third-snowiest season; Duluth, Minnesota, is coming in at sixth; and Sioux Falls, South Dakota, is eighth.

Masha Hoy, a hydrologist with the North Central River Forecast Center, said a big driver of the forecast is the region’s above-average – and very wet – snowpack.

“The snow water equivalent in the snowpack that’s still on the ground is in the top 10 or 20% compared to historic years, so there’s really just quite a lot of snow water out there,” Hoy said in a media briefing. It hasn’t had a chance to melt out slowly yet due to the cold weather.

While temperatures may get above freezing during the day across parts of the Midwest, for the most part, lows are returning below freezing, which has kept the snowpack from rapidly melting until now.

Ryan Dun believes consistency of warm, high temperatures would give us the chance for a rapid snowmelt and increased flooding potential.

The city of Davenport, Iowa will be at risk if a big flood happens in the next few months. Davenport Mayor Mike Matson has been watching the situation closely and said his city is ready for what’s to come.

We test the pumps after we set them up. When there is a chance of a flood, we practice the work, he told CNN last week. The barriers are set up downtown for the flood. We send out notices to potential impacts of any businesses or residents. They are aware of what goes on. We are of course watching it.

Four years ago, when a temporary levee broke, causing flooding along the Mississippi River, the Mayor of that time, Marty Matson, was still in office.

A lot of people are used to having this conversation, even some of our old-timers have been dealing with this for a long time. We have people that live along the river and when the flood comes, they boat in and out,” Matson said.