Record-Setting High Water on the Mississippi | James F. Barnett Jr. Reflects on Current Flooding in the US
In light of the
current floods submerging the Midwest and along the Mississippi River and scientists’
predictions that this is just the beginning, James F. Barnett Jr., author of Beyond Control: The Mississippi River’s New Channel to the Gulf of Mexico, a
detailed chronicle of how the wild Mississippi will eventually deliver a
cataclysm, shares his thoughts below.
Viewed from the Natchez Bluff, the Mississippi River looks
like a postcard. The scene makes a charming backdrop for tourists’ selfies. But
drive down to Natchez-Under-the-Hill and stand on the riverfront. From there,
the Mississippi is too close and too dangerous to be charming. Tows and their
barges riding the crest are lifted high above where they should be.
Beneath them, water and sediment
churn past at 1.5 million cubic-feet-per-second.
Spring 2019 is barely three days
old, and the Mississippi River at Natchez has already remained above flood stage
for over two months. Far upriver, phenomenal amounts of rain and snow are
causing catastrophic flooding along the Missouri and Platt rivers. Similar
scenes are in the news along the Ohio River. Closer to home, the US Army Corps
of Engineers has kept the Bonnet Carre Spillway, a flood-control safety valve
above New Orleans, open since late February.
Are we heading into another
record-setting high water event on the lower Mississippi River? Perhaps it’s
too early to make predictions. Online information sources, such as NOLA.com and
the National Weather Service’s “Observations and Forecasts for the Lower
Mississippi/Ohio” are my usual morning coffee companions. And if you know
someone who works for the Corps of Engineers, offer her or him a cup of coffee
and some sympathy.
James F. Barnett Jr. is
author of Beyond Control: The Mississippi River’s New Channel to the Gulf of Mexico,
The Natchez Indians: A History to 1735, and Mississippi's American Indians, all published by University Press
of Mississippi. His work has appeared in the Journal of Mississippi History, Mississippi
Archaeology, and Southern Quarterly.
He is retired as director of the Historic Properties Division with the
Mississippi Department of Archives and History.
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| A detailed chronicle of how the wild Mississippi will eventually deliver a cataclysm |
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