Mississippi crests at Memphis just short of 1937 record

Towns and cities prepare as “Triple Crown of Disasters” swollen river rolls their way

Source: wikipedia (click on image to view larger)

Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The states of Tennessee, Louisiana and Arkansas are sandbagging and scrambling to build up dikes in a desperate effort to prepare for massive flooding at the Mississippi River rolls their way after its crest Tuesday night 10 May in Memphis, Tennesse, came close to a 74-year-old record.

The US Weather Service is calling it the third hit in the 2011 Triple Crown of Disasters, “consisting of continuing drought and wildfires in the west, a record-breaking tornado outbreak in the South and record flooding along the Lower Mississippi River.”

The river, North America’s longest at 3,750km for the whole system, crested at 47.8 feet (nearly 15 metres) in Memphis, a bit shy of its 1937 record.

Cities to the north of Memphis are clearing up, filling new potholes and cleaning out sewers after the river flooded their levies and banks as it headed south.

But in Louisiana, still recovering from Hurricane Katrina in 2008 in some areas, fear runs high, reports CNN, and in Natchez, Mississippi, where the river is expected to crest at 64 feet in 10 days, residents are being evacuated and waiting for the massive flood to spread over the land, which is much flatter than further north.

Posted by :: Ellen Wallace