Mississippi River Playing Limbo (How Low Can You Go?)

Sam Evans Strickland posted
Well, the river done run dry mamma at Vicksburg.
Mike Evans: “Preacher Man’s Saying It’s The End Of Time, And The Mississippi River She’s A Going Dry”......Hank Jr..
Ron Bishop shared
Joe Dwyer: Which river?

Dennis DeBruler commented on Joe's comment
The Mississippi River. This photo posted by George Bolls with the comment "The Yazoo and Mississippi Valley depot in Vicksburg, MS. The Y&MV was a subsidiary of Illinois Central and was eventually absorbed by IC." shows what it is supposed to look like by Vicksburg. The depot in the photo is here:
 https://www.google.com/.../data=!3m1!1e3!4m5!3m4...

Dennis DeBruler commented on Ron's share
This is a textbook example of a photo being worth a thousand words. I've read a lot about the Mississippi River being low, but I would not imagine it was this low if I hadn't seen this photo. That means all of these businesses along the back meander are inaccessible.
https://www.google.com/maps/@32.3856948,-90.8863547,4433m/data=!3m1!1e3
A farmer in southwest Wisconsin has said the basis was a neagative $1.70 for soybeans in Dubuque, IA, so he is having to drive twice as long to deliver to Warren, IL.

 

John Mullis commented on Sam's post
 It is a spot abeam downtown Memphis.

Normally I look at these charts when the water is too high. This is the first time I've seen the brown color. Note the flood stage is 43'.

Water

safe_image for Low Mississippi Levels Ground Barges
"Low water levels are hampering river terminals from fully loading barges due to fears that they will get stuck, like the ones seen at the Cargill facility on Hales Point Grainery Road, Halls, Tennessee. (DTN photo by Matthew Wilde)"

safe_image for Low water in the Mississippi River brings visitors to Tower Rock
Brad Smith: Where is this?

Dennis DeBruler commented on Brad's comment

https://www.google.com/.../data=!3m1!1e3!4m5!3m4... 

If you click the photo in the upper-left corner you can scroll through 72 photos. I saw some photos from 2017 that had the base covered with water.

Jennifer rogers, Nov 2017

Oct 20, 2022: 9:48 video of Tower Rock. I didn't watch it, but include it as more documentation.

Chris Wrightson posted a request for pictures. Matt Bloomfield provided two photos of a ship grounded in Baton rouge and I include four of the photos that JC Putman uploaded with the comment: "These were from the first boat that grounded. Worst I have ever seen. The grain elevators were high and dry. The weir dikes at Vicksburg were so swift it nearly topped the boat in front of me around. They called on the radio to tell me about." 

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Tim Corley posted three photos with the comment: "I have never seen this much of the trail dike showing below lock 27!! Crazy times!!!"

(I posted the photos in reverse order so that we see them in the order he took them. Lock #27 is the last one of the Upper Mississippi River Waterway system. So this is the first stretch he entered that is not controlled by dams.)

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The grain elevator, tank farm and Merchants Bridge in the backgrounds allowed me to confirm that "the trail dike" is the west wall of the Chain of Rocks Canal.

3D Satellite

4:04 video @ 0:14

I started at Cairo, IL, and went south on Google Maps until I found a railroad bridge just north of a road bridge. I stopped at Vicksburg because I think these are the KCS and I-20 Bridges.

In this photo that I took Dec 30, 2018, the water was higher. In the above screenshot, we are looking at the eastern tower pier of the road bridge. The level of the river was a lot closer to the top of the solid part of the pier in 2018 than it is now. I've never see a pier in the dirt before on the Mississippi River.

Dennis DeBruler

 

2:49 video @ 0:30
Shipwreck exposed near Baton Rouge Bridge.

Wingman21 3:31 video @ 0:32
"Mississippi River very Shallow in South East Missouri"

Oct 22, 2022: 9:29 drone video taken at Chain of Rocks during lowwater. Barge traffic does not go through here. Tows use the canal and Lock #27 that is just east of this channel.

The drought is so bad that the dam-controlled Upper Mississippi River is having to dredge.

Raw Images Art & Photography posted via Dennis DeBruler

Alan Smith commented on his post
This should all be under water
[His post is photos of the Harahan and Frisco Bridges, so that should be Memphis on the other side of the river.]