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  • From: "Tradingpost" <tradingpost@lobo.net>
  • To: livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: [Livingontheland] Midwest flooding could push prices of food higher
  • Date: Thu, 12 Jun 2008 09:52:13 -0600



"This could be a 500-year type of event," said Iowa Gov. Chet Culver, noting
that three weeks of storms had left nine rivers in the state at or above
record water levels, and had closed or washed out hundreds of roads, highways
and bridges.

Midwest flooding could push prices of food higher
http://www.usatoday.com/weather/storms/2008-06-11-floods_N.htm?csp=Daily%20Briefing

DES MOINES — The record flooding that has sent thousands from their homes in
Iowa is likely to become a greater threat across the Midwest into the
weekend, as stormy weather continues and water levels continue to rise in the
waterways that feed the swelling Mississippi River.

As the rising Des Moines and Raccoon rivers threatened to flood downtown in
Iowa's capital city, local and state officials cast the rising waters in epic
terms, saying the next 24 hours could be one of the most important periods in
the city's 157-year history.

"This could be a 500-year type of event," said Iowa Gov. Chet Culver, noting
that three weeks of storms had left nine rivers in the state at or above
record water levels, and had closed or washed out hundreds of roads, highways
and bridges. "Very few people could anticipate or prepare for that type of
event. … We're dealing with something that's historic in proportion."

More than 2,800 people were evacuated Wednesday, including 1,800 in Cedar
Rapids. Late in the day, there were signs the flooding that has killed 10
people could have an impact far beyond the upper Midwest. Forecasters
watching the rising level of the Mississippi River were warning of potential
flooding this weekend in St. Louis, about 350 miles downstream from Des
Moines.

Meanwhile, the flooding is becoming an increasing threat to corn, wheat and
other crops, raising the possibility that the storms here could contribute to
already spiraling prices for food, fuel and other commodities. Besides
ruining crops, the flooding has led the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to plan
on closing a 200-mile stretch of the Mississippi — the nation's primary trade
waterway — to agriculture and cargo ships.

Forecasters warned late Wednesday that the Mississippi River north of St.
Louis may reach or exceed levels not seen since devastating floods in 1993.
The Missouri River, meanwhile, was about to crest at Hermann, Mo. Record
volume on the upper Mississippi and the Illinois River could create flooding
in St. Louis by the weekend, forecasters warned.

The Red Cross has opened 37 shelters in Indiana, Iowa, Nebraska and Wisconsin
and served 115,000 meals and snacks to people forced from their homes.
Spokeswoman Renita Hosler said the numbers are deceptively low. "We know the
impact on people affected is higher," she said. "Iowa is a great example.
Right now 20,000 people are under mandatory evacuation."

Among them is Christine Schipper, 38. She lost her job as a cafe manager in
rural Parkersburg, Iowa, when a tornado leveled the place last month. On
Sunday, the creek near her home in New Hartford began to rise. Water filled
the basement of her apartment building and started seeping up the walls. She
soon had to evacuate, joining most in her town of 700 who left.

"You take it one day at a time, I guess," Schipper said. "My apartment,
there's never been water there" before. "It was never a thought to worry
about it."

The turmoil in the nation's breadbasket led the Agriculture Department this
week to shave 3% from this year's corn crop prediction, a rare move so early
in the season. Corn topped $7 a bushel for the first time as heavy rains in
Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, Iowa and Wisconsin — combined with growing
demand for corn-based ethanol — pushed prices up.

"It's clearly a panic situation," said Gary Rhea, president of Risk
Management Partners, a marketing firm here.

As much as one-quarter of the crops in the southern third of Wisconsin may be
gone, said Paul Zimmerman of the Wisconsin Farm Bureau Federation. "We're
talking a couple hundred thousand acres of corn that could be in jeopardy"
and a comparable amount of soybeans, he said.

Shipments of corn, grain and other farm commodities have been hit. The U.S.
Army Corps of Engineers planned to close a 200-mile stretch of the upper
Mississippi River between St. Louis and Rock Island, Ill., beginning today
after rising water flooded locks and dams along the critical route for
shipping grain and other cargo.

Ron Fournier, a Corps spokesman, said the section will be closed at least two
weeks. He said any barges that don't get through the locks Wednesday night
are "going to get stuck wherever they are."

The closing halted barge traffic as far north as Minneapolis and stopped the
transport of as much as 135,000 tons of cargo a day, 80% of it grain heading
downriver. Coal, fuel and fertilizer headed upriver also were stranded.

"There will be a significant backlog," said Steve Jones, a navigation manager
for the Corps, which last halted river traffic in late April and early May
but historically has shut down commerce only once a decade.

Levees at increasing risk

As the torrent kept raining on Iowa, forecasters predicted the deluge would
continue into next week. Records set in 1993, when devastating floods
breached hundreds of levees and left 50 people dead and 55,000 homes damaged
or destroyed, were swamped by new high-water marks along the Cedar, Iowa and
Des Moines rivers.

The Iowa River in Iowa City was predicted to crest to 32 feet by early next
week, shattering the record of 28.52 feet set 15 years ago.

The worst flooding is still ahead as rivers continue to rise until early
Saturday, said Dan Luna, a hydrologist at the North Central River Forecast
Center in Chanhassen, Minn. "Any time rivers stay that high for that level of
time the risk of levee failure increases," he said.

The National Weather Service predicted clear skies Saturday before showers
and thunderstorms return next week. Even if no more rain falls, said John
Castle, a project operations manager with the Army Corps of Engineers, river
levels aren't likely to return to normal until mid- or late July.

The soggy skies are the latest in a 3-month-old weather pattern that has
pummeled the eastern Plains and Midwest with air flowing up from the Gulf of
Mexico. That "has led to a lot of rain being dumped" across the region, said
Brad Rippey, a federal meteorologist in Washington, D.C.

Some of the worst flooding has been in Indiana, where President Bush on
Sunday declared 29 counties disaster areas, making federal funding available
for the cleanup. Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels has asked that 15 more counties
in the central and southern part of the state be added.

In Iowa, Gov. Culver said 51 of the state's 99 counties were disaster zones.

Day after drenching day, Iowans now at the center of the storm have pitched
in to help hold off the rushing waters, which have closed hundreds of state
and county roads. The Iowa National Guard has mobilized an army of 1,700
sand-bagging volunteers. Among them: University of Iowa football players who
filled and loaded sandbags at a maintenance center in Coralville, north of
Iowa City.

Water rushed over a spillway in Coralville for only the second time in the
dam's 50-year history, spilling out over a fossil gorge and further raising
the Iowa River downstream. It was expected to crest at 31 feet, the highest
level since the 1850s, said Mike Sullivan, Johnson County emergency
management coordinator.

"We're anticipating areas where the sandbags may not hold," he said.

In Des Moines, threatening waters led some city employees to move out of City
Hall.

South of Iowa City, residents of the Baculis and Thatcher mobile home parks
rushed to add sodden sandbags to a 3-foot barrier as the Iowa River closed
in. Many remembered the damage done to the low-lying area in the 1993 floods.

"Hopefully, we're a little more prepared this time," said Karen Baculis,
whose husband has worked for days hauling sandbags and keeping their mobile
home park's water pumps going all night.

Along the swollen Cedar River in northeast Iowa, residents warily eyed a
sandbagged levee as the river crested more than 12 feet above flood stage
early Wednesday. More than 200 residents of Cedar Rapids, where it has rained
every day this month, were evacuated overnight. Downstream in Waterloo,
residents were forced to leave because of ground so saturated that pumping
stations couldn't keep up. In Vinton, electricity was shut off and residents
of a 15-block area covered in 3 feet of water were ordered to flee.

Alliant Energy, which serves the eastern two-thirds of Iowa, expected power
failures to hit downtown Cedar Rapids and other areas later this week. "It's
a critical situation right now," spokesman Ryan Stensland said. "We don't
have any widespread disconnects going right now, but that could easily change
over the next 24 hours."

In the muck

In Wisconsin, where as many as 50 roads remain closed, river levels began to
subside, but officials were nervously watching 19 dams for signs of failure.

"If we face another huge rainstorm, the pressure on some of these dams is
going to be enormous, and that's the No. 1 concern we have," Gov. Jim Doyle
said in an interview.

Torrential rains have devastated parts of the state, breaching and draining
267-acre Lake Delton in the Wisconsin Dells resort area and prompting
business and homeowners in Gays Mills on the flooded Kickapoo River to
consider moving the town to higher ground.

Cable news networks showed dramatic video of houses tumbling into man-made
Lake Delton just before rising floodwaters pushed through its bank. That
opened a break that washed out a highway and carved a new channel to the
Wisconsin River before it drained in just a few hours into a muddy sinkhole.

"We swam here as kids," said Dan Platt, 32, of the town of Lake Delton as he
and a buddy combed the lake bottom with a metal detector in search of wedding
rings. They found only a few toy cars, padlocks and fishing lures. "Never
thought we'd be standing here in the muck," he said.

Engineers from state and federal agencies are trying to figure out how to
repair the damage to Lake Delton, but Doyle said it's unlikely the job can be
finished this year. "It's going to be a tough time for the resorts that line
that lake," he said.

In Gays Mill, the talk is what to do after being walloped by floods twice in
less than a year. Many are still rebuilding from an August disaster that
damaged more than 70 homes.

This week, the Kickapoo River crested at more than 7 feet above flood stage
and matched a record last reached in 1978.

Erin Martin, who manages a food co-op on Main Street that was half-submerged
by water Wednesday, said discussions had already begun over whether to move
some buildings to higher ground. Now she worries that all vulnerable parts of
the village will have to move just as Soldiers Grove, where she lives, was
relocated in the 1970s after repeated floods.

"I'm feeling freaked out," she said as she restocked shelves behind sandbags.
"Can't we move everything into the part of town that doesn't flood?"

Stone reported from McLean, Va.; Keen from Chicago. Schulte reports for The
Des Moines Register. Contributing: Oren Dorell and Doyle Rice in McLean; Tom
Barton, Jared Strong, Melissa Walker and Mason Kerns of The Register; Jason
Thomas of The Indianapolis Star; Maureen Groppe of Gannett News Service; and
the Associated Press





  • [Livingontheland] Midwest flooding could push prices of food higher, Tradingpost, 06/12/2008

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