Tuesday, August 14, 2012

Low Water

The Mississippi River is approaching record lows, so The Husband and I went down to look. The Younger Son had planned to come but injured his knee the night before and decided to pass.

The Mighty Mississippi, which just a little over a year ago reached record flood levels, looks a lot different now. The foot of Beale Street at Riverside Drive was completely flooded last year, with catfish swimming where these cars are driving now:


The American Queen can't continue its scheduled trip, because the River is too low. It's stayed here rather than complete its trip to Vicksburg. Last year, the boats were sometimes having trouble clearing the bridges. Now, they're having trouble clearing the river bottom. At some points the river is only 9' deep:


Last year the steps pictured below were under water, and the boats were floating level with where I stood to take this picture:



The monument in Tom Lee Park was standing in water last year. This year? Well, you can see the river from there, but you'd have to walk a bit down a steep river bank to get to any water:


CNN had a truck at Riverside Park and a camera set up pointed towards the bridge. They made a report from one of the barges:

1 comment:

  1. It is crazy isn't it. Sometimes, when I am down in these areas, I think this was under water last year. It is amazing how much water that was. I was so nervous about the flooding although my guys assured me it would not get to where I live (Uptown Square) that I thought about getting Buttons and Patches life vests just in case. I was making plans in my head. Because I was not leaving them (pups) behind with water swelling around them. My dad whom is in NC called and said are u really that worried about it reaching ur area and I said yes. He kept checking in on me and the pups until we were sure it was not going to go any higher. I went daily down to Mud Island from May 4 till June 1st unfortunately I lost the videos and pics when they had to switch my phone out for a new one. But what a historic event for us in Memphis. I remember it well.

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