Posts Tagged ‘MS River Flooding’

The Pumps will pour water out of the Delta’s boot over the levee at Vicksburg onto people below.  They will make flooding higher and longer inside the levee.  Landowners in the Delta outside the levee will benefit.  Landowners inside the levee will suffer. The pumps won’t increase the discharge to the Gulf. They just pass the flood downriver onto someone else. That’s the history of other divisive Corps flood control projects.  That’s why the river is full now.

Much of the Mississippi between Natchez and Venice, LA is below the surface of the Gulf of Mexico. A large portion of the river from Donaldsonville to Venice is below the BOTTOM of the entrance leading to the Gulf of Mexico.

You might guess flood stages would move from north to south in the Mid-to-Lower Mississippi River as the waters travel north to south to reach the Gulf of Mexico. You’d be wrong.

Dr. Y. Jun Xu, world-renowned hydrologist of Louisiana State University, explains how South Louisiana is on the verge of one of the worlds most detrimental natural disasters in history.

Potential energy, the energy of dropping from a height, is the main driver of MSR waters to the Gulf.

On April 9, 2019, the Mississippi River at Natchez will have spent 95 days this year above the 48 feet flood stage

Water now flows much faster to the Lower MS River due to changes in land use coupled with Corps of Engineers changes to the rivers. During the rainy season, water cannot get from the Lower MS River to the Gulf of Mexico as fast as it arrives from upstream. The bathtub that is the MS River from Natchez to the Gulf has been backing up since the late 1990s.

Gravity is a fundamental law of nature.  It makes rivers flow to the sea.  If the natural flow is blocked, there are consequences. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers blocked about 40% of the Mississippi River’s peak flow to the Gulf at Morgan City in 1964.  The delayed consequences today are unnatural floods on the Lower Mississippi. 

“This is a historic day for our State,” Secretary Hosemann said. “Today, our State and three public school districts allege the United States has taken property deeded to Mississippi 200 years ago.”

On January 15, 2016, the Mississippi River at Vicksburg reached 50 feet — 7 feet above flood stage.  It was the highest January crest since 1879 when Congress put the Mississippi River Commission (MRC) and the US Army Corps of Engineers (Corps) in charge of flood control.  A freak January flood.  It caused the Mississippi deer season to close early along the river.

It happened again this year.  On January 12-13, the river reached flood stage at Vicksburg and Greenville.  And the deer season closed early.  “Deja vu all over again,” as Yogi Berra said.  The river has reached flood stage in January only three times in 140 years — but twice in the last three years.