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  • From: "Tradingpost" <tradingpost@lobo.net>
  • To: livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: [Livingontheland] Mississippi Breaches Levees, Crests Short of Records (Update1)
  • Date: Fri, 20 Jun 2008 10:10:50 -0600


fighting nature?

Mississippi Breaches Levees, Crests Short of Records (Update1)
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=afKQbQ91SuS4&refer=home
By Robin Stringer and Brian K. Sullivan
Enlarge Image/Details

June 20 (Bloomberg) -- The Mississippi River breached more than a dozen
levees in Missouri, flooding farmland and causing hundreds of residents to
flee homes.

The overflowing waterway may ensure that the flood, triggered by as much as
15 inches (38 centimeters) of rain in some parts of Iowa this month, will
crest at lower levels downstream than previously forecast and will fall short
of record levels set in 1993.

``If you have a bathtub full of water and someone comes along with a
sledgehammer and knocks out a six-inch chunk of the bathtub, the crest in the
bathtub will go down,'' said Alan Dooley, spokesman for the Army Corps of
Engineers in St. Louis.

The levees breached north of St. Louis were agricultural levees built to
withstand 30-year floods at most, Dooley said by telephone. The failure of
those structures may flood 20,000 acres of farmland and ruin homes, he said.
As the water floods streams over the levees, it will cause river levels to
drop and accelerate the crest downriver, he said.

The Mississippi has breached or overtopped 14 levees in Missouri, according
to Susie Stonner, a spokeswoman for Missouri State Emergency Management
Agency in Jefferson City.

Residents Flee

The water flowed over three levees around the city of Winfield, about 40
miles (64 kilometers) northwest of St. Louis. The river is at 35.6 feet (11.2
meters) at Winfield, almost 10 feet above flood stage, and forecast to rise.
All but 25 of Winfield's 700 residents followed the state's advice to leave
their homes, Stonner said.

At St. Louis, the river was at about 37 feet this morning, and will crest at
about that level as soon as today, falling short of the 40-foot peak level
the National Weather Service had predicted earlier this week for Missouri's
second-biggest city. The record level for the city was 49.6 feet in 1993.

The river at Winfield and other points north of St. Louis may climb again in
the next few days as water that poured over levees drains back into the
Mississippi, according to AccuWeather.com.

The latest forecasts mean peak flood levels will be at least a foot below
records set for the Mississippi in 1993 at cities along the river, including
Quincy, Hannibal, Louisiana and Clarksville.

FEMA's Response

Storms this month in the Midwest have caused the worst flooding in 15 years,
killing at least 24 people and injuring 148, the U.S. Federal Emergency
Management Agency said this week.

Corn prices reached a record this week as the water swamped crops. The most
active corn contract has gained 87 percent in the past year, reaching a
record $7.915 a bushel on June 16. Corn fell a second straight day today on
speculation near-record prices will limit demand. Soybean prices dropped a
third straight day, after approaching a record high this week.

U.S. President George W. Bush yesterday visited areas of Iowa soaked by
record flooding last week, including Cedar Rapids, where about 20,000
evacuees have begun returning to their homes. FEMA has provided 3.2 million
liters (844,000 gallons) of water to the flood zone, enough for almost a
half- million people daily, and material including 12.8 million sacks for
sandbagging.

Iowa may have lost $3 billion worth of corn and soybeans, according to Dave
Miller, the Iowa Farm Bureau's director of research and commodity services.
About 1.3 million acres of corn are flooded or remain unplanted and 2 million
acres of soybeans are affected, representing about 16 percent of the state's
farmland, he said.

To contact the reporter on this story: Robin Stringer in New York at
rstringer@bloomberg.net; Brian K. Sullivan in Boston at
bsullivan10@bloomberg.net
Last Updated: June 20, 2008 10:56 EDT





  • [Livingontheland] Mississippi Breaches Levees, Crests Short of Records (Update1), Tradingpost, 06/20/2008

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