As all three of the Midwest's major rivers — the Missouri, Illinois, and Mississippi — rise above flood level, residents face record flooding and mandatory evacuations. Today the US Army Corps of Engineers plans to close nine locks and dams on the upper Mississippi River.
Closing the locks means that the economic repercussions of the flooding will rise along with the rivers — the decision will halt traffic on 200 miles of prime commercial waterway. Good thing gas is cheap, so they can just use roads to transport all those goods!
As for some good news, Iowan volunteers who filled and piled up sandbags in downtown Cedar Falls, Iowa, have been able to protect their city's center. You can see them at work in the pictures below. 200 locations have been flooded across the US, and flood warnings have been issued in Missouri, Iowa, Illinois, Oklahoma, and Montana, according to the National Weather Services. Are you seeing any flood action near you?
- Gabrielle Steenblock, 8, walks across a flooded street near downtown Cedar Rapids.
- The Federal Building stands on an island next to the rising Cedar River.
- Streets Department employee moves sandbags.
- Eight year old Sammy Petersen watches as rising water inundates the low lying area of the Czech Village.
- A resident rushes to fill sandbags.
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7 For All Mankind
No flooding in LA - but a) why is there no adult helping that girl but someone is taking her picture; b) couldn't they at least have called to her to put the stupid bike down? If she stepped in a pothole or tripped on a curb that she can't see... Aren't there moms in Iowa?
1There are lots of moms in Iowa. They also have, like 12 children. So if they lose one, it doesn't matter all that much. (jk)
I agree, I saw this picture and thought "If you were my daughter, you'd be in HUGE trouble for playing in the water."
2year after year. there is nothing engineers can do to stop this from happening?
3I live in Iowa and the flooding has been horrible the past couple weeks. Only getting worse. I have friends who have had to evacuate their homes as well. There have been improvements made since the last major floods (1993) that have helped, but many areas of Iowa are in floodplains so not much can be done.
4How many people want to bet that within the next 10 days or so, Al Gore comes out and blames this on GWT?
5I know, UD! Like when he said this was probably exactly what was going to happen ... and then it did! What a fear monger.
6So, every time we have a major rainstorm that does a lot of damage, that proves Al Gore was correct?
7That girl looks like she's playing in the water, she looks pretty happy about being in it. So maybe that's why nobody helped her or they staged it - oh wait no, the media would never do that.
UD - ROFL on #7.
8by the way I'm not trying to make light of the flooding, I'm very sorry for the people affected by this and I hope things are taken care of soon for them.
9Someone needs to tell that little girl that this is no time for a wet t-shirt contest and besides she's too young for that.
No UnDave I think this has very little to do with Global Warming and a lot more to do with torrential rain combined with environmental manipulation. All three major rivers have been manipulated with locks and damns for commercial transport, which altered their natural ability to water shed. Same thing is responsible for the Katrina flooding. All of the wetlands that were dredged out so that ships could pass provided a natural barrier against flooding
10Ahh, the floods of 93. I'm from Des Moines, and I remember that my parents sent me to live with my aunt and uncle for a week because there wasn't any clean water. My uncle let me drive all the time, and I had just gotten my learner's permit. It was awesome.
I think it is pretty well know in those parts that flood water is NAST-TEEE! I can't imagine that her parents are okay with her playing in the flood water.
11I turned Platinum!!!
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