BS: Mississippi Floods

Subject: Mississippi Floods
From: SINSULL
Date: 17 Apr 01 - 04:37 PM

The latest. Any 'Catters awash?

Miss. River Floods Lowlands

By ROGER PETTERSON

Bloated by melting snow and rain across the Upper Midwest, the Mississippi River rose out of its banks and strained against dikes Tuesday in four states, stopping Amtrak trains and chasing hundreds of people from their homes.

Contractors in Minnesota rushed to shore up a weakened earthen dam on a tributary of the Mississippi.

Hundreds of people had left their homes in low-lying riverside areas of Wisconsin and Iowa, and volunteers and prison inmates sandbagged homes along the Mississippi at Hampton, Ill.

Among those who evacuated was Rep. Ron Kind, who moved his wife and two children out of their home at French Island, Wis. Water was 4 feet deep in the house.

``We were completely engulfed and surrounded by the Mississippi,'' the congressman said after a canoe trip to check on the house and his neighbors.

A 403-mile stretch of the Mississippi from Muscatine, Iowa, to Minneapolis was closed to boat and barge traffic. Nine counties in western Wisconsin were under a state of emergency and a disaster proclamation was posted for 10 Iowa counties.

The Mississippi rose above 23 feet at St. Paul, Minn., for the time since the 1960s. Four city parks and the downtown airport for small planes were under water.

One man was missing after he and a companion drove past barricades onto a flooded highway near Minneapolis earlier this week.

At Appleton, Minn., contractors were sent to shore up the Marsh Lake Dam on the upper Minnesota River. The earthen dam had been weakened by erosion and battered by huge chunks of ice.

If the dam were to collapse, officials said, it could eventually raise water levels downstream at Montevideo and Granite Falls by 1 1/2 to 3 feet. However, the river was already receding in both communities and local authorities said dikes should be able to handle any increase.

``We're going to be ready for this if it happens, and it may not happen,'' Granite Falls Mayor Dave Smiglewski said.

Amtrak suspended its Empire Builder train service between Minneapolis-St. Paul and Chicago because of high water on the tracks. Passengers were put on buses. About 200 people were affected Monday, said Amtrak spokesman Kevin Johnson. The Empire Builder runs daily in both directions between Chicago and Seattle and Portland, Ore.

More than 200 of the 300 families living on Abel-Essman Island, in the Mississippi near Guttenberg, Iowa, abandoned their homes Monday and the only road to the island was closed when the water reached 19 feet, or 4 feet above flood stage. The river is expected to crest there Friday at about 21 feet.

Subject: RE: BS: Mississippi Floods
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 17 Apr 01 - 09:26 PM

I live in St. Paul and work in Minneapolis. My regular route to work is detoured because of the flood. That's not hurting anybody, though; it's only a public park, and the road right next to it, that's under water. Across the river from downtown St. Paul, Holman Field, a small airport, is closed, and I think a few other low-lying roads are closed. We've learned our lesson, here. Nobody lives on the flood plain. The low ground is nearly all parks and roads.

Last weekend I drove to La Crosse, Wisconsin, and back. U. S. Highway 61, which follows the river on the Minnesota side, was open then, but I hear part of it has been closed, I think near Lake City. We saw a few houses in the water near there. Parts of Highway 35, which follows the Mississippi on the Wisconsin side, were closed on Sunday, north of Winona.

From my point of view, it's more interesting than worrisome. Near where I live, the river cuts a deep gorge, and the houses on either side are on bluffs, I'd guess 50 feet above the water. No worry about floods here.

Subject: RE: BS: Mississippi Floods
From: raredance
Date: 18 Apr 01 - 12:17 AM

The Red River (of the North) crested in Fargo last Saturday about 20 feet above flood stage. That's serious water passing through town but 2 feet less than '97 so it was tense but not panic inducing. Had a good chuckle at ABC radio network news today. They came on and ominously intoned how rising waters of the Mississippi were causing great concern in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, and North Dakota. Those idiots out in New York and Washington have no concept of the rest of the country.

rich r

Subject: RE: BS: Mississippi Floods
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 18 Apr 01 - 12:19 PM

For those who aren't clear on Minnesota geography: The Red River of the North (so called to distinguish it from several other Red Rivers, mostly in the South) is in a whole different watershed from the Mississippi. It forms the boundary between Minnesota and North Dakota, and flows northward into Canada, where it winds up in Lake Winnipeg, out of which flows another river (the Winnipeg River?) which empties into St. James Bay, a branch of Hudson's Bay, which connects to the Arctic Ocean.

Minnesota has another major watershed, too: all the rivers and streams, mostly small, that flow into Lake Superior, whose waters end up in the North Atlantic via the St. Lawrence River. I haven't heard of any flooding in that area.

So theoretically, there is a point, probably somewhere southwest of Duluth, where three continental divides meet. But as far as I know, the point isn't marked. It would probably be hard to find, because most of Minnesota is pretty flat.

Subject: RE: BS: Mississippi Floods
From: SINSULL
Date: 18 Apr 01 - 12:30 PM

"those idiots"? OUCH! Blame the morons with pretty faces and sexy voices who read other people's (minimum wage clerks and interns) copy. They don't know for sure that Iowa is a state.

Subject: RE: BS: Mississippi Floods
From: mousethief
Date: 18 Apr 01 - 12:42 PM

Iowa's a state?

Subject: RE: BS: Mississippi Floods
From: Sandy Paton
Date: 18 Apr 01 - 01:36 PM

The news last night spoke of La Crosse, Wisconsin, having trouble. That's the home port of the Julia Belle Swain, the lovely old steamboat that Art Thieme sang on for so many years. She ties up right by the riverside park in town. Any news of her, Art? Where do they take her when the river gets rough?

Sandy

Subject: RE: BS: Mississippi Floods
From: raredance
Date: 18 Apr 01 - 09:53 PM

Sinsull, you describe exactly the people I was referring to, the readers and writers (sometimes the same person)out at the network headquarters. I can't tell on the radio if they also have pretty faces. Over the years I have heard similar references to Bismark, South Dakota and North Dakota's great tourist attraction, Mount Rushmore. Years ago Ann Reed, a Minnesotan, wrote a song about geographic inompetence that starts out, "Where the hell is Boston, and who said I should care."

A bit of geographic pedantry. The Nelson River flows out of Lake Winnepeg and into Hudson Bay in Manitoba. The James Bay portion of Hudson Bay is much further east on the border of Ontario and Quebec. There is a Winnepeg River that also flows north. It goes out of Lake of the Woods (that little bit of Minnesota that juts north into Canada and disrupts a nice long straight border) and also goes into Lake Winnepeg.

The dot that Jim left unconnected is that if the Mississippi were threatening North Dakota, Minneapolis and St Paul et al. would have long since been totally submerged.

rich r

Subject: RE: BS: Mississippi Floods
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 18 Apr 01 - 11:17 PM

Rich r: I stand corrected. I was spouting off from my feeble memory, and didn't have a map to look at while I wrote that. At least I had the sense to put a question mark after Winnipeg River.

Subject: RE: BS: Mississippi Floods
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 19 Apr 01 - 11:24 AM

I was able to drive my regular route to work today. The water has receded somewhat and the road is no longer under water. But the water is still high, swift, and a bit frothy.

Subject: RE: BS: Mississippi Floods
From: Burke
Date: 20 Apr 01 - 07:39 PM

When I saw One man was missing after he and a companion drove past barricades onto a flooded highway near Minneapolis earlier this week. I almost made a comment about the Darwin award & that was before the thread on it started.

It turns out there are at least 2 Darwin nominees from this. That first one and Man drowns self to avoid arrest

Subject: RE: BS: Mississippi Floods
From: raredance
Date: 20 Apr 01 - 10:45 PM

Could be a Minnesota thing. The lose a few every year who drive their snowmobiles into open water and occasionally head-on into each other, the latter with a half mile or more of frozen lake in all directions in which to take evasive action. About a year ago some potential arrestee near Moorhead, MN was being chased by police. He abandoned his car and dashed across what proved to be the not really frozen Buffalo River and disappeared about half way to the other side.

rich r

Subject: RE: BS: Mississippi Floods
From: kendall
Date: 21 Apr 01 - 08:34 AM

A woodchuck knows not to dig his hole in a flood plain.