More Flooding Information

More Flooding Information

flooding

One of the highlights of last weekend's trip to the "real" southern Illinois was a stop at the Len Small Levee break from 2016.  The break remains un-repaired and more flooding could cut off up to 12 miles of Mississippi River channel. Check out the University of Illinois Press Release for more information.

Weekend Trip

Weekend Trip

flooding river navigation

We went to Cape Girardeau, MO this weekend for the annual Illinois Soil Classifiers Fall Tour.  Friday night discussion was lead by Dr. Ken Olson who has become an expert on flooding and Flood damages to cropland.  Dr. Olson has recently published a book on Managing Mississippi and Ohio  River Landscapes.  Doctor Olson's book is very readable and he gives a good understanding of flooding issues.  The book has over 200 illustration to improve the reader's understanding of the issues.

On Saturday we toured an un-repaired levee Break on the Len Small Levee District levee.  We also looked at the Mississippi River at Thebes and discussed the effects of the narrow valley at that point.  Other stops later in the day include a new lock and dam under construction on the Ohio River and finally a look at the confluence of the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers.  Check out Dr. Olson's book at the link above.

Bruce Putman, Bill Kreznor and Ken Olson

Olmstead Lock and Dam

Mississippi and Ohio Confluence

Floodplain Compliance

Floodplain Compliance

flooding

Last Winter's flooding in West Alton was serious enough that a number of structures were substantially damaged.  That means that damages exceeded 50% of the value of the structure.  The four homes below are being elevated in order to comply with floodplain management requirements.  The first step is to jack them up and rest them on cribbing.  Home owners who have flood insurance can receive  a payment to help offset the cost of the elevation.  That is called an increased cost of compliance payment.   I know two families that had paid for elevation before the flood out of their own pocket. The good news for them, is that they did not have to deal with the damages last winter.

New Book on Flooding

New Book on Flooding

Agriculture. Soil flooding

By : Kenneth R. Olson, Professor Emeritus of Soil Science, Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Sciences, University of Illinois, Urbana, Illinois

In July the Soil and Water Conservation Society, Book Division will be releasing their newest soil and water conservation book entitled "Managing Mississippi and Ohio River Landscapes" by Kenneth R. Olson (UIUC) and Lois Wright Morton (Iowa State University). The book cover includes porthole pictures of some of the color photographs in the book (there are 60 color maps and 160 color photographs along with 120K words in 25 chapters. The confluence of the Mississippi and Ohio is the focus of the book.  Dr. Sam Indorante wrote the Foreward. The order link should be live by the 1st of August. The 250 page (8.5 by 11") book will have a hard cover. Anticipate it will sell for a "reduced price" of  $49/copy or half price thanks to generous institutional sponsors. 

Writing this book has taken the first two years of my retirement but I was able to summarized much of my last 8 years of NRES work related to the impact of flooding series work which started with the flood of 2008. Most of the book focuses on levee breaches and the impact on soils. We recommend in the book that an updated soil survey be immediately made after every levee breach and subsequent flooding event. 

Little River Diversion Channel

Little River Diversion Channel

flooding

Olson, Morton, and Speigel have recently published an article in the Journal of Soil and Water Conservation, concerning the Headwaters Diversion channel AKA Little River Diversion Channel in Southeast Missouri.  The channel diverts upland flow from the Castor and Whitewater Rivers along with a number of other small tributaries and prevents them from flowing through the Missouri and Arkansas Delta area.

The diversion was one of the keys to draining the Delta and making it more productive agriculturally.  The down side of many drainage and flood control projects is that these projects often transfer a problem from one place to another.  In this case, flood elevations on the Mississippi River are increased from Cape Girardeau, Missouri to Helena Arkansas because of adding 1.2 million acres of drainage area to the flow.  Click on the link to read the article Missouri Ozark Plateau HeadwatersDiversion Engineering Feat

Water Does Weird Things

Water Does Weird Things

flooding

In 1993 the Meramec River Guage near the mouth of the river along the Mississippi read 45.3 when levees of the Columbia Levee District overtopped.  This year the Meramec River topped out at 47.2 which was worriesome to me.  However, the Stage of the Mississippi was somewhat lower than 1993 and was able to absorb the water.  We did move antique tractors and tools to a safer location over this bridge the past two days.  I am glad we moved but even more glad that it looks like we did not need to.  Lots can still go wrong, but one hazard .

You have seen the I-55 bridge over the Meramec River was closed because of high water.  I would guess that if you ever crossed that bridge at normal water levels, you would not believe that water could close down that bridge.  It sits high above the river.

Update on Flooding

Update on Flooding

flooding

A weekend storm had lead to lots of flooding in the area around St. Louis.  In Hillsboro, water flowed through the emergency spillway on Glenn Shoals Lake.  That would be termed a 100 year flood, better categorized as a flood that has a 1% chance of occurring in any given year.

Our family farm is located in the floodplain of the Mississippi River south of St. Louis.  Flood forecasts yesterday were predicting a 44.9 reading on the St. Louis gauge.  In our area the levees will overtop with around a 49 foot level.  With more rain in the forecast, it seemed prudent to begin moving some machinery from the farm.  Lots of people were hauling grain as fast as possible with hired trucks running in addition the local farmer's trucks.  We also saw farm machinery being moved. We also saw trailers being loaded with household goods.   We do not believe that the flood levels will reach the 1993 record level, but you can't wait and see and them try to move everything in a panic.  Our friends in the West Alton and Portage DesSioux area in Missouri were already put out of their homes by the levee there overtopping.  Right now the forecast looks good for my home farm, but more rain could be a problem.  Flooding on tributaries might reach records, but it looks like the big rivers will not reach record levels from this rainfall event.

Internal Water Protected Side of Levee 

Mississippi River at the mouth of Carr Creek