Mess on the Mississippi

Wall Street Journal page B1 (online subscription required) ^ | September 2, 2005 | Dan Machalaba, Jeff D. Opdyke, Ken Wells

[topher]

Damage to Coastal Marshes May Mean Lasting Problems For Nation's Vital River.

As state and federal officials grapple with massive human toll wrought by one of the most powerful hurricanes to ravage the US coastline, evidence mounted that the storm also damaged the critical Mississippi River shipping corridor south of New Orleans as weell as the remote towns and ecologically sensitive marches that surround it.

Photographs and first-hand accounts from helicopter pilots, boat captains and engineers working for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration indicate that the main channel of the river remains intact. But the surrounding nub of land around the last 20 miles of the rivers, known colloquially as the "crow's foot," was decimated by the storm.

...

The pass, normally dredged to be about 45 feet deep, is the conduit for more than 6,000 ocean-going vessels ayear headed to the vast complex of docks, shipping terminals, grain-loading facilities and petroleum-processing plants that line the banks of the Mississippi between New Orleans and Baton Rouge, La.

The massive shipping hub, one of the busiest in the world, is key to the flow of commerce-imported petroleum, export grain and a vast array of other types of cargo from burrber to make tires to steel for construction and chemicals. ...

[Other article talks of coffee and grain shipments will be impacted as well -- Gulf, River Shippers Scamble -- with different authors]

[topher]

Important to note that shipping is being rerouted, but now truckers have to go, for example to Freeport, TX to deliver banananas to the Midwest. Confusion reigns at this shipping company because of the communications mess that has occurred.

Of significant important, in my opinion, is the need to do something like The Netherlands. They are actually reclaiming land from the North Sea. Specifically, building a barrier wall 60 foot high wall to protect the coastal areas and prevent storm surge. It is possible, and with the oil and natural gas flowing into Louisiana, this could and should be funded somehow.

Man has tampered with the Mississippi delta area by building levees -- preventing mud from sloshing into the coastal marshes to rebuild sentiment deposits.

By doing somethings similar as the Netherlands, the coastal areas would retain sentiments and sand.

Ecologically, if done correctly, it would be a boon to the environment as well as man.

And I feel 60 foot high wall just offshore with openings that could be closed for storms would be sufficient to deflect the energy, storm surge, and waves of the hurricane. Water could leak around such a wall, but the storm surge would be reduced significantly, in my opinion.

A bold idea, but so was building hundreds of miles of 20 foot to 30 foot levee down most of the length of the Mississippi.

[Wiseghy]

headline sounds like something Jon Stewart might adopt...

[cfo]

2 excellent Christian relief organizations:

Southern Baptist's NAMB: http://www.namb.net/

Samaritan's Purse: http://www.samaritanspurse.org/

[topher]

Either write off the Mississippi River as a major means of inexpensive river commerce, or do something that should fix the problem.

Time to come up with ideas for the future instead of complaining about the present and the past...

[Leg Olam]

Good post but your use of 'sentiments' instead of sediments just cracked me up.

[topher]

Photographs show very little left of some parts of the Mississippi River delta.

[topher]

I usually have some goof in keying an article in...

We probably need some comic relief considering what looters on crack or withdrawing are doing in the New Orleans area...

[Jaded]

mark

[ARealMothersSonForever]

Bumpus.
2 excellent Christian relief organizations:

Southern Baptist's NAMB: http://www.namb.net/

Samaritan's Purse: http://www.samaritanspurse.org/

[JamesP81]

Photographs show very little left of some parts of the Mississippi River delta.

I wouldn't worry. They will fix it. Primarily because moving cargo by towboat costs something 1/4 or 1/2 as much as by rail and/or truck.

[Old Professer]

I hope the author meant marshes instead of marches.

[Old Professer]

In todays world, there's little difference in the two words.

[Rockingham]

Your suggestion is well intended but would not work in the long run because there is a far more difficult problem involved than mere hurricanes and storm surges: the high ground in New Orleans and elsewhere in the Louisiana delta is subsiding. In New Orleans, the rate of subsidence is an inch a year, which would put all of the city below sea level within about eight or nine decades, with subsidence continuing even after that. Eventually, the cost of pumping, maintenance, and risk of levee breach would become unbearable. Perhaps there is an affordable solution other than relocation, but my layman's understanding is that the geology of the delta region is against it.

[scouse]

Of significant important, in my opinion, is the need to do something like The Netherlands.

I wouldn't do that. Instead I would do away with all the levees and build a new city similar to Venice. A series of large man-made islands joined by bridges etc. This would allow the river to return the silt back to the delta and stabilize the area by halting the subsidence.

[dirtboy]

Of significant important, in my opinion, is the need to do something like The Netherlands

The Netherlands recalims land from the sea because it is a small country with nowhere else to get additional land.

Louisian is a large state with a population of less than 5 million people. There is natural high ground west of NOLA that sits between the Mississippi and the Atchafalaya.

I think the Dutch would be the first to say building higher levees around the current location of NOLA makes no sense when so much higher ground already exists nearby.

[isthisnickcool]

One of my friends brother-in-law was on the coast in Mississippi and had not been heard of and was feared dead. They just got a call and apparently he left before the storm then came back to his home and found it still intact. He's been locked and loaded and has been fending off looters. He's in a hell but alive.

[misharu]

Either write off the Mississippi River as a major means of inexpensive river commerce . . .

Question: If you write off the Mississippi River as a major means of commerce, what of those cities up river from NOLA? Should not this closing down or cutback of the commerce on the river adversely affect towns such as St. Louis, Keokuk and Cape Girardeau? Would this not necessarily create a domino effect?

[PAR35]

Either write off the Mississippi River as a major means of inexpensive river commerce, or do something that should fix the problem.

Re-read the post. There is no reason to write it off. The main channel is intact for ocean going ships. The lower river has already been re-opened to barge traffic. The docks upstream from New Orleans are probably in good shape; even the ones on the West Bank can probably be put back into service fairly quickly. The railroads are inspecting bridges and roadbeds, and should be back in operation except for the flooded areas fairly soon.

Last I saw was that the LOOP hadn't found any major problems and was pressure testing the pipelines to make sure that there were no hidden problems.

[niteowl77]

Question: If you write off the Mississippi River as a major means of commerce, what of those cities up river from NOLA? Should not this closing down or cutback of the commerce on the river adversely affect towns such as St. Louis, Keokuk and Cape Girardeau? Would this not necessarily create a domino effect?

And pretty near every ag/chem/petro/misc. terminal or power plant on the Mississippi, Missour and Ohio rivers (and tributaries thereof)? Damn straight it would. I realize that people who don't live on the river don't think much about it as a commerce artery, but it is there, it is big, and it is part of so many things that there isn't even a question about making sure it is put back to normal.

[misharu]

My thoughts exactly. Just so's ya know . . .I live in St. Louis and see the barge traffic daily. And you are right, people who don't live along the rivers really don't understand what an impact it has economically and commerce-wise.