Missouri Flooding: The worst is yet to come

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.omaha.com/article/20110626/NEWS01/706269898#flooding-the-worst-is-yet-to-come

Chart: http://www.omaha.com/apps/pbcsi.dll/bilde?Site=OW&Date=20110626&Category=NEWS01&ArtNo=706269898&Ref=AR&maxw=600&maxh=400

Chart: http://www.omaha.com/apps/pbcsi.dll/bilde?Site=OW&Date=20110626&Category=NEWS01&ArtNo=706269898&Ref=V1&maxw=600&maxh=400

By David Hendee
WORLD-HERALD STAFF WRITER


ONLY IN THE WORLD-HERALD
Imagine roughly 55 million acres — the entire surface of Nebraska and southwest Iowa — covered in a foot of water.

Now imagine trying to funnel all that water down a drainage canal surrounded by airports and homes, businesses and farms.

You can begin to grasp the unprecedented, slow-developing danger facing folks from Montana to Missouri from the Great Flood of 2011.

In more than a century of record-keeping, the nation's longest river has never coped with more water.

Floodwaters are breaching levees, triggering evacuations, closing highways, swamping thousands of acres of farmland, destroying homes and lapping against hurriedly reinforced floodwalls protecting cities, airports and power plants, including two in Nebraska that produce nuclear power.

The damage bill will tally in the hundreds of millions.

As bad as it's been, the hardest parts are still ahead, according to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the river system's managers.

FULL story at link.

[ensho]

1. kick

nt

[onethatcares]

2. the food crunch will be knocking on the door shortly

think of all the crops that will not be available this coming year. wheat, corn, soy, tomatos, barley, fruits. Prices will soar and the repukes will call for massive cuts in the workers wages and benefits for states to overcome said shortages and become business friendly.

[jwirr]

3. Even if they could replant (which is possible this early) the fields

will be too muddy for the equipment to be used. I think you are right - up go the grocery prices again. Thank God for our local small farmers in unflooded areas.

[onethatcares]

4. plant what you can,

and get ready to eat a lot of beans. By planting what you can I mean turn buckets into farmland, grow peppers, tomatos, okra, squash and whatever will work in your zone.

Good luck.:hi:

[jwirr]

6. We are already doing that - worried about prices due to gas prices.

Hopefully others will have the money and ability to do the same.

[Viva_La_Revolution]

7. my new hoophouse will be up by this fall! I'm so excited

For under $500 I will have a 9x20 space to supercharge my urban garden. Even with the learning curve, I figure I'll easily pay for it in 2 years, just in the produce we won't have to buy. If I can make a few extra bucks selling starts in the spring then even better. :)

[onethatcares]

9. wow, you gotta green thumb and a few fingers too.

I live in zone 9a on the west coast of floriduh and it's a backwards planting cycle. Plant in august harvest in february or march.

You rock. When I did corn, I got about 25 plants up and sprouting ears til the squirrels came along and wiped it out in one night.

[Viva_La_Revolution]

15. thanks! That pic is actually from the end of July last year..

This year I am way late getting things in the ground, but it should be an ok year. The corn didn't actually go so well. smallish ears and it just took up too much space. I presprouted the corn and carefully planted by hand, an experiment that worked out well in a cold and rainy spring. Luckily we can get awesome huge sweet corn locally, so this year that plot is in squashes of various types.

oh! and the squirrels left the corn alone if I fed them nuts at least once daily, lol!

[Omaha Steve]

16. We can't grow a crop

Being right next to a forest means free loaders like deer, raccoons, rabbits, moles, possums, turkeys,....

[Maru Kitteh]

12. You will see nary a dent in corn. Trust me when I say, there's still plenty to go around. n/t

[malaise]

5. K & R

Stay safe DUers
:grouphug:

[The Midway Rebel]

8. Global climate change...

wut lol.

[KamaAina]

10. And because it's slow-developing as well as being in "flyover country",

it will largely escape the notice of the M$M, which will then treat the ensuing spike in food prices as breaking news and will likely try to pin the blame on President Obama. :eyes:

[cbdo2007]

11. I keep wondering when it's going to hit Kansas City.....

they keep making it sound imminent but we have yet to really see any of it here yet. I think we're a few feet above flood stage but it seems like its just a waiting game now and who knows when the actual tide of water will overtake us?

[gratuitous]

13. This is what happens in a disaster

It may not have rained in certain localities for days, even weeks. And yet, those places are at risk just the same for floods because of all the water upstream from them. People who refuse to believe they're in any danger and stubbornly stay put may find themselves washed out of house and home by an inundation they could have/should have seen coming from miles away. The flood doesn't care if you don't believe in it.

However, any parallels between the Mississippi floods and any other situation are merely coincidental and can be safely ignored. At your peril.

[Lil Missy]

14. The water table is flooding basements in my neighborhood.

Many have sump pumps and others have 4 to 6 inches of water in their basements. Lots of wet carpet and damaged possesions sitting out at the curbs.

So far I'm okay - my home is fairly new with a well built cement basement walls and floors. I bought some pallets today to raise up my washer and dryer several inches and for a few furniture pieces.

This alert lasts into September!!

PS - I am 6 blocks from the levee.