Major River Flooding April-May'11

[Curt]

BTW- the record MS floods of 1937 occurred in January...not spring when the typical snowmelt occurs. It was all due to repeated heavy rains in both the OH/MS/TN River Valleys from fall into winter. The big difference now is that levees in the Lower MS Valley have been reinforced, and may of its tributaties "cut" per se to allow for a narrower but much faster flowing river system. The levees have performed exceptionally well this go around as designed. Had this protection not been there, you can bet that loss of life would be high.

[bugalou]

I am happy to report Roadhouse reopened today!  During the reopening festivities, we donated $50,000 to the Red Cross for flood victims in the Mid-South.
Horseshoe should be opened around lunch time tomorrow.  Everyone one come on down!

[Curt]

I am happy to report Roadhouse reopened today!  During the reopening festivities, we donated $50,000 to the Red Cross for flood victims in the Mid-South.
Horseshoe should be opened around lunch time tomorrow.  Everyone one come on down!

Avatar = me laugh hard

[StormNine]

 The MS. River flood this year was likely caused by Heavy Rains that fell particularity from Eastern Arkansas into Missouri, Kentucky, Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio.  Along with the record snowfall melt which helped keep the rivers higher.  I will say mostly the rainfall, but the snow-melt probably had something to do with it as well.  The past major lower MS. River floods have also been big time Ohio River floods(1927,1937,1997,2011) which is a tributary of the Mississippi.  So when all that heavy rain runs into the Ohio it needs somewhere to go.  That somewhere to go is the mighty Mississippi and all rivers want to follow gravity downward.  Downward is the Gulf of Mexico.  Even though areas in Louisiana and Southern Mississippi have drought issues.  The big time flood crest and force of gravity are too much to handle to prevent record flooding down that way as well. 

[ChrisPC]

I am happy to report Roadhouse reopened today!  During the reopening festivities, we donated $50,000 to the Red Cross for flood victims in the Mid-South.
Horseshoe should be opened around lunch time tomorrow.  Everyone one come on down!

Can you get me a deal on a room? 

[bugalou]

Avatar = me laugh hard

Yep, we are getting to that time of year where that ridge will be mentioned in every other AFD week after week!

[PigsEye]

More flooding photos.  I apologize in advance if these have already been posted.  I spent the last week in FL with the Mouse and am trying to catch up.

http://deltacouncil.weebly.com/flood-image-database.html

[bugalou]

Harrah's is still on track to be open by this Friday.  Thank goodness for that too.  I know no one cares, but this has been a hellacious month for me work wise.  Lots and lots of 12-14 hour days!  I am ready for everything to be back to normal.

Now that Horseshoe is open, I can explain what happened there to delay the opening:  Basically the sewer backed up into the barge and into Bluesville due to the river being higher than the sewer level.  Nasty stuff but we have an army of workers attacking it and we are pretty much recovered and cleaned up.   The damage in Bluesville was pretty extensive but it will be fixed and back to normal in a couple weeks.  I have a picture of me in my hazmat gear I will have to post on here this week.

[WFayetteTN]

A slight river increase in the coming days up north. Shouldnt affect Memphis, I dont think. We are steadily trucking down, so we're good to go.. but this is based on the rainfall in MO/OH.

http://www.srh.noaa.gov/lmrfc/?n=lmrfc-mississippiandohioriverforecast

[PigsEye]

Arkansas Business article on flooding and comparison to 27/37.
http://www.arkansasbusiness.com/article.aspx?aID=127050.54928.139194

[bugalou]

Not sure if this belongs in a new thread but the worst of all the river flooding seems to be just beginning to those to our north:

Here is a video of water over topping a levee that was shot a couple days ago on the Missouri River.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FvE0o3DaXOE&feature=player_embedded

Several Levee failures/overtops have occurred over the past few days on various tributaries of the MS river to our north.

[Kevin]

Breaking News...

WREG and WMC are reporting the Chisholm Lake Store in Lauderdale County suffered a partial collapse a short time ago after a large portion of the floor fell in. Tonight was the grand re-opening of the store following the floods. They are reporting there are injuries including people who were flown to the Med in Memphis. Have to assume the floor collapse is probably due to stress on the structure after the water damage it received in the flood given the timing. Hope the injuries will end up being few and/or minor.

UPDATE...WMC is reporting 3 people injured. 2 were flown to the Med...one transported to another Hospital by ambulance. No word on conditions...

[Kevin]

MAJOR BUMP!

Only bumping this to report some good news...not directly affecting TN but for this area. Its a total non-surprise (in fact I think somewhere in here we speculated about this happening) but the Tunica Riverpark gauge is becoming an official forecast point along the MS River next month with their own separate warnings/statements.

Flood stage will be 41 feet, with moderate flooding at 46 and major at 52. The record crest, set this year of course, was 58.45 feet.

More info...
http://www.srh.noaa.gov/images/rtimages/meg/Tunica_RiverPt.pdf

BTW...some info about this year's event that was not reported but subtly added to AHPS recently...the official crest of the Memphis gauge was determined to be 48.03 feet, a few inches above the gauge readings (remember there were tons of problems with malfunctioning during the crest time), and pretty much dead-on with the forecast crest of 48.0.

[harlequin]

I saw that on MEG's homepage! That's pretty cool...

People who lived behind the levee in Tunica County definitely aren't returning very quickly. Probably a smart decision on their part, but it's still sad to see Tunica Cutoff not being the fun redneck bar hangout it used to be.