Terrible flooding in USA.

Thousands of folks evacuated from their homes up and down the Mississippi river. Situation is very bad, not that you'd know from the coverage its getting on any of the American tv channels. The Army Corps of engineers blasted 265 tons of explosives near New Madrid Floodway.
Thousands of acres of farm land are expected to be destroyed. Very sad.



MEMPHIS, Tenn. – Flood worries that prompted the U.S. government to blast open a Missouri levee to ease pressure on some towns are rippling down the Mississippi River, leading to more evacuations and unease as the Army Corps of Engineers weighs whether to purposely inundate more land with water.
People in eight states along the swollen Ohio and Mississippi rivers and their tributaries were filling sandbags and packing up to leave home as high water works its way downstream in a slow-motion disaster that could take weeks to unfold.
The breach of southeastern Missouri's Birds Point levee was heralded by some Illinois towns along the Ohio River as a needed relief from record flooding, and the man who ordered that action says he may do the same with other Mississippi River spillways as flood prospects mount.


Video footage here.
http://www.kfvs12.com/story/14557528/birds-point-floodway?redirected=true

link here regarding how the explosive blast was felt 65 miles away.

In fact, the blast registered on 90 seismograph stations that are operated throughout the New Madrid seismic zone by the Center for Earthquake Research and Information (CERI) at the University of Memphis, including the one in RoEllen.

http://www.stategazette.com/story/1724734.html

Sponge Bob

Didn't a flood cause that New Madrid earthquake zone to go off around 100 years ago...a massive one it was.

Thats right. Quakes started in 1811 . New Madrid was destroyed. Sections of the Mississippi ran backwards. Actually some locals where claiming this was happening this time round too .
Just read an update saying blast felt 150 miles away.



video of some of the damage from the flooding here.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t4X3FQxuMkg&feature=player_embedded

muckish

May 2011


April 2010

M.T. Cranium

Another location seeing severe flooding is St-Jean Quebec (Canada) from the Richelieu River that drains Lake Champlain north into the St Lawrence River. The city of about 30,000 people east of Montreal has seen widespread flooding this week. It will be largely a damage to homes situation rather than any danger to lives but levees in the area gave way a few days ago and rain has continued in the region.

With the New Madrid earthquake of 1811-12, I'm not sure about this, but I thought the strong earthquakes caused the flooding rather than vice versa.

DominoDub

More @ http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2011/05/mississippi_river_flooding.html

Iancar29

The flooding is so bad in places, the flowing water would fill a American football field up to 48ft in 1 second!!!

Apparently the river is also flowing Backwards in places too!

maquiladora

Looks like the Mississippi river has risen above the highest ever recorded level now at this location, still rising.

http://water.weather.gov/resources/hydrographs/ntzm6_hg.png

Also, found this graphic somehwere :

stevenmu

New Orleans right in it's path again. Has there been any discussion of it reaching there? Has flood prevention/protection been increased enough since Katrina to deal with it?

im not sure what they have done since katrina. I do know they are expecting the worst in that area though.
They are opening the Morgana floodway saturday possibly.
Local food banks are starting to prepare.

Local news link below

http://www.wdsu.com/news/27851020/detail.html

link to pictures of the flooding across different states.
http://mediagallery.usatoday.com/Major+flooding+across+the+Midwest,+South/G2215


link here to Manitoba flooding

http://news.nationalpost.com/2011/05/10/floods-prompt-manitoba-to-declare-state-of-emergency/