Posted on 05/12/2011 8:26:50 AM PDT by Qbert
Nearly 600 homes have been flooded and thousands evacuated in Rena Lara as waters from the Mississippi river and its tributaries rose to record levels on Tuesday.
Officials have assured residents of immediate relief measures and Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour puts the loss of crops from the floods at $150 million to $200 million.
He said, “The state is asking local officials to get in touch with people who might have no electricity and phones and thus no way to get word of the flooding.”
[Snip]
The record levels of water in the Mississippi River since the 1920s and 1930s also reflect heavy snow melt and rains, experts said. Andy Prosser, spokesperson of Mississippi Department of Agriculture said wheat, corn, soybeans, cotton and rice crops in about 600,000 acres of land were affected by the floods.
(Excerpt) Read more at ibtimes.com ...
Where, right in the middle of a very expensive 1st world section of Santiago, Chile!
The Obama administration doesn’t support farming in the US, anyway, except for industrial use. They think that all our food should be imported from third world countries.
I hear that there will be a wheat shortage due to the drought in Texas, as well.
I think that they said that the wheat crop was expected to be only 1/3 of the typical crop. The problem is not just in the US, though, but all over the world. Will the Obamamites honor contracts of sale to other countries before supplying the US demand??? I expect so.
Why are these people building or farming in a designated flood plain if they’re not expecting the periodic flood? Seems sort of silly to me.
Floods and drought both to contribute:
“But statewide, it’s a pretty grim picture,” he said. “And it’s not just Texas; it’s New Mexico, Oklahoma, Louisiana, and parts of Arkansas. It’s an exceptional drought across a big area.”
Corn along the Gulf Coast is stunted and tasselling early, Miller said. “It’s in a lot trouble.”
Blacklands/Central Texas corn, though planted later, is in much the same shape, he said.
“We’re seeing leaves twisting (from heat/moisture stress) by midday,” he said.
Much of the Texas wheat crop has failed as well, Miller said.
“Probably in the order of 50 to 60 percent of the wheat crop won’t be harvested,” he said.
From a national standpoint, Texas is a “minor player” in feed grains, he said. But Texas typically plants about half the cotton acreage in the U.S., so a large-scale crop failure there could have an impact on prices, Miller said.
Cotton is typically planted later than corn, and cotton growers ran into dry soil conditions as the planting window opened. As a result, Miller said, a very small percentage of the total cotton crop, under 20 percent, has been planted to date.
http://agrilife.org/today/2011/05/10/texas-crop-weather-for-may-10-2011/
“Will the Obamamites honor contracts of sale to other countries before supplying the US demand??? I expect so.”
Yep. It’s never stopped them before.
The flood plains are very fertile because of the periodic flooding. So it is a good thing to farm the land with the understanding that there is no guarantee from year to year.
They flooded 100’s of thousand acres of crops to save a decaying town of 2500 People?? The government has gone mad!
My lakes are lower than I've ever seen them in 35 to 40 years.
Trees stressed out from hurricane Ike are starting to die.
Just priced- $44.67- for seed corn for the amount of corn for my garden at local ACE Hardware!! Silver Queen...
Did you get some rain yet today?
Houston is about to be pounded by storms.
Better that much crops than a lot more homes and businesses.
Natural flood plains need to be respected. Building OUGHT to be restricted in them. And yes, they do make for good farm land. But yes again, they will flood from time to time.
Just enough to get the grass wet.
Supposed to get more, but it’s kind of moving around us.
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