Mississippi Flooding

I have not been blogging too much about this as there have been too many other natural disasters of late, and it was perhaps time to redress the balance with a range of more positive stories.
However, the flood surge continues, and it's a reminder of the impacts of attempting to manage a major river system.
It was also brought back into my mind as I've just edited a piece of writing about the river, which mentioned the balance between management and letting the river behave naturally. FEMA: the Federal Emergency Management Agency is co-ordinating some of the work.

American news agencies and networks are calling this THE FLOOD OF THE CENTURY in their coverage.
As always with geography, there are connections...
The impact of the floods reaches out across the Atlantic, and one teleconnection is the possible impact on the price of certain global food commodities.

The issue with the Mississippi is that it drains a large part of the USA, and is a complex system with lots of major tributaries which all contribute water to the main channel.
There has been controversy for days over the breaching of barriers in an attempt to save urban areas, which has resulted in farmland being flooded.

Some urban areas, particularly a small town of Cairo, Illinois was thought by many to be perhaps worth less than the farmland that was sacrificed to save it, particularly by the farmers whose land was flooded. Could form the basis for some interesting discussions about the 'value' of landscape.

A few sample resources:
Flooding in Vicksburg (CNN)
Louisiana evacuees flee their homes (CNN)
Useful explanation of river crests and the need for spillways (CNN)
The river gives and the river takes away (CNN)
Some useful images of signs put up in flooded communities -evidence of a spirit of resilience (CNN)

And unfortunately, the forecast is for more rain in the Mississippi catchment (although that's not surprising given its size..)


Here's a YouTube clip....




Meanwhile, tornadoes continue to make the news in other parts of the USA, notable by their frequency and size...

Comments