Flooding on the Mississippi | God's World News

Flooding on the Mississippi

05/21/2019
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    (Empty barges sit along with tug boats on the Mississippi River in St. Paul, Minnesota. AP Photo/Jim Mone)

There’s not much barge traffic along the mighty Mississippi River this year. Normally, barges carry grain to market and bring fertilizer to Midwest farmers for the new growing season. But this year, flooding has swamped farmland, leaving parts of the Mighty Mississippi closed for business.

The Mississippi River runs nearly 2,350 miles from Minnesota to the Gulf of Mexico. It’s a major pipeline for shipping everything from agriculture products and construction material to petroleum and coal.

This year’s flood is the longest since the Great Flood of 1927, the worst in modern U.S. history. Of course, neither comes close to the global flood of Genesis 6. Still, 2019’s flooding means barges can’t enter or exit several key ports.

Normally, farmers would be sending soybeans, corn, and other grain down the river for export. Shipments that normally travel up the river to communities from St. Louis to St. Paul, Minnesota, aren’t coming through either.

Many of the locks and dams on the Mississippi closed due to flooding. Many have now reopened, but the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers doesn’t expect water levels to fully recover until possibly June. “What we’re seeing is truly historic,” says Patrick Moes of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Minnesota hasn’t seen a shipment since April 24.

Even with open locks, “Many of these barges wouldn’t be able to get here,” says Sam Heilig, a Corps spokesperson. “Because the water’s so high, there’s not enough clearance to get under some of the bridges.”

The interruption in river traffic has affected other industries too, mainly transportation. The National Waterways Foundation estimates that one 15-barge tow on the Mississippi River can ship as much product as 1,050 large semitrailers.

All those who depend on the river can do is wait. The river needs enough water to open the channel, but not so much that it closes locks and dams. Controlling the rain? It’s a problem only God can fix.

(Empty barges sit along with tug boats on the Mississippi River in St. Paul, Minnesota. AP Photo/Jim Mone)