U.S. Army Engineers blow portions of levee to relieve flooding along Mississippi River - Polidicks

[url]http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/05/05/us-weather-flooding-levee-idUSTRE7437O120110505?feedType=RSS&feedName=domesticNews[/url] [release](Reuters) - The government prepared to blow up a third section of a Mississippi River levee on Wednesday to manage flooding, as a wall of water roared down the nation's largest river system, threatening towns and cities all the way to the Gulf of Mexico. [b]The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers blew up a two-mile section of the Birds Point levee Monday night, inundating about 130,000 acres of Missouri farmland in a desperate attempt to ease flooding in towns in Illinois and Kentucky.[/b] Water levels did recede but a second, smaller section was detonated Tuesday afternoon to allow water back into the river. The third and last blast was scheduled for Wednesday evening once explosive materials reached the site, Corps spokesman Jim Pogue said. The Corps, which is responsible for the system of locks and dams along the Mississippi River, would then turn its attention to the growing threat further south. [b]"The entire system is experiencing flooding and we will continue our fight downstream," said Major Gen. Michael J. Walsh, president of the Mississippi River Commission, in a statement.[/b] [b]Arkansas closed a 15-mile stretch of westbound lanes of one of the busiest road arteries in the nation, Interstate 40, for the time ever due to flooding, according to the state's transportation department. More than 31,000 vehicles travel daily through the section of road closed, and 65 to 70 percent of those are trucks, said Glenn Bolick, Arkansas Transportation[/b] Department spokesman. Highway officials were diverting traffic onto rural roads but even some of these were flooded, they said. Further downstream in Mississippi, some residents of the historic Civil War town of Vicksburg were moving to higher ground on Wednesday to avoid the rising flood waters. [b]"We are not going to stay here," said Vicksburg resident Harold Manner. "The families all around us are taking what they can and moving out of here, at least for now."[/b] The levee system in Mississippi is holding for now but it has never been tested like this before, officials said. "Compared to the Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 this flood is going to be a lot nastier," said Marty Pope, senior hydrologist for the National Weather Service in Jackson. Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour has had sandbags delivered to his Yazoo City home to prevent it from flooding. Large amounts of rain and melt from the winter snow has caused a chain reaction of flooding from Canada and the Dakotas through Illinois, Indiana, Missouri, Kentucky, Arkansas and Tennessee. It is expected to soon hit Mississippi and Louisiana at the mouth of the Mississippi River. (Additional reporting by Tim Ghianni in Nashville, Miriam Moynihan in St. Louis; Leigh Coleman in Biloxi, Mississippi and Suzi Parker in Little Rock; Writing by Mary Wisniewski; Editing by Greg [/release] You know, I've sometimes seen a bunch of these fire and brimstone Southern Preachers saying that the east and the west coasts of the U.S. has gone 'soft and liberal' and are being punished with gays and some tsunami and wildfires. Is this some sort of karma happening in the midwest that involves floods and tornadoes?

Naw, the midwest has always been a shit place.

[QUOTE=Uberman77883;29622652]Naw, the midwest has always been a shit place.[/QUOTE] The worst weather in all of the USA.

[QUOTE=Uberman77883;29622652]Naw, the midwest has always been a shit place.[/QUOTE] In terms of mother nature, yes.

[QUOTE=Frankiscool!;29622731]In terms of mother nature, yes.[/QUOTE] Oh I thought we were talking about the residents.

[QUOTE=superdinoman;29622696]The worst weather in all of the USA.[/QUOTE] Last year it was a bit rainy for about a week, one day it started raining a bit harder than usual. A few hours later I find out this happened. Half a mile from my house. [img]http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_705-Iz874wo/TCABxuBpprI/AAAAAAAAAqg/KpLPiniKJ_c/s1600/4c1ee29776bda.image.jpg[/img]

that's not the midwest

Midwest is further North. This is in 'The South'

A friend of a friend lives their when not at college.

[QUOTE=mastermaul;29623352]Last year it was a bit rainy for about a week, one day it started raining a bit harder than usual. A few hours later I find out this happened. Half a mile from my house. [img_thumb]http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_705-Iz874wo/TCABxuBpprI/AAAAAAAAAqg/KpLPiniKJ_c/s1600/4c1ee29776bda.image.jpg[/img_thumb][/QUOTE] When I first saw that picture, I thought it was a close up of a computer tower and computer bits strewn everywhere. Then I looked a little closer and saw that those were cars down there...Damn.

[QUOTE=superdinoman;29622696]The worst weather in all of the USA.[/QUOTE] Oh god this. There are two seasons in the midwest. Hot rain and frozen rain.

atleast its not like vancouver: we have rain.....