Posted August 21, 201212 yr Coast Guard halts traffic on low-water stretch of Mississippi From Joe Sutton, CNN updated 9:25 PM EDT, Mon August 20, 2012 (CNN) -- An 11-mile stretch of the Mississippi River near Greenville, Mississippi, was closed Monday to most vessel traffic because of low water levels, idling nearly a hundred boats and barges in the stream, according to the U.S. Coast Guard. "We are allowing a limited number of vessels based on size" to attempt to pass, said New Orleans-based Coast Guard spokesman Ryan Tippets, adding that the closure was affecting 97 vessels Monday afternoon and was halting both northbound and southbound traffic. This same area near Greenville, which sees about 50 vessels pass on an average day, has been closed "intermittently" since August 12, when a vessel ran aground, said Tippets. ... http://www.cnn.com/2012/08/20/us/mississippi-river-traffic/index.html
August 21, 201212 yr To put the sheer tonnage/volume of that shipping traffic into some perspective..... "In the souls of the people the grapes of wrath are filling and growing heavy, growing heavy for the vintage." -- John Steinbeck
November 23, 201212 yr Looks like problems still exist. A section of the Mississippi River is so low that much of the navigation along the river could grind to a halt in less than a month, the owner of a Washington County shipping company says. A summerlong drought left 180 miles of the Mississippi between St. Louis and Cairo, Ill., so low that it could cut off the Upper Mississippi from the river’s lower section. That section of the Mississippi could be unnavigable by Dec. 10. ------ Although officials say traffic on the Ohio and lower Mississippi rivers is not disrupted, they point out that the threatened part of the Mississippi is part of a system. http://triblive.com/news/allegheny/2949493-74/mississippi-river-low-traffic-waterways-levels-lower-ohio-president-section#axzz2D4qtdDuo
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