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A new study in the Journal of Science Advances concludes that the “drowning” of the roughly 15,000 square kilometers of remaining marshland in the Mississippi River Delta of Louisiana is “past the tipping point” and now “probably inevitable,” according to The Washington Post.
Why This Matters: Louisiana has already lost one-fourth of the land in the Delta at the beginning of the last century.
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This past spring more than 1 million acres of land flooded across five states in the Midwest.
However, now that it’s nearly winter, Midwest farmers are still very much feeling the effects of the floods and are worried about another round of flooding in 2020.
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Beachgoers in Mississippi over the long Fourth of July weekend were sorely disappointed — all 21 of the state’s beaches were closed due to a toxic algal bloom that has made the water unsafe for swimming. The “blue-green” bloom, which has been growing and resulted in beach closures there since June, is caused by the […]
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Yesterday, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) issued its annual prediction of the size of the Gulf of Mexico hypoxic or “dead” zone and it is expected to be nearly 8,000 square miles (roughly the size of the State of Massachusetts) and could rival the largest one ever, which happened in 2017. This year’s […]
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Flooding on the Mississippi River has now exceeded the “historic” 1993 flood, as Accuweather reported that the river officially crested at 22.70 feet at Rock Island, Illinois on Thursday night, which broke the previous record of 22.63 feet that was set on July 9, 1993, according to the National Weather Service (NWS) at the Quad Cities Office.
Continue Reading 495 wordsThe Mississippi River broke through a barrier and water rushed into downtown Davenport, Iowa, flooding offices and shops unexpectedly on Tuesday and remained flooded into Wednesday. CNN reported that the flooding occurred when HESCO flood restraints holding back the bloated river suddenly broke, sending water rushing into the streets creating a lake in the midst of the downtown area, forcing first responders to evacuate people by boat.
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The environmental group American Rivers published their annual list of the “most endangered” rivers in the U.S. and this year the Gila River took the top spot because of a planned diversion project that would block the last free-flowing river in New Mexico. According to USA Today, the rest of the top five most endangered were: the Hudson River, New York; the Upper Mississippi River, Illinois, Iowa, Missouri; the Green-Duwamish River, Washington; and the Willamette River, Oregon.
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According to E&E News, the $14 billion levee system, which was recently totally rebuilt to better defend the New Orleans in the event of another catastrophic storm like Hurricane Katrina, is subsiding and soon may not provide sufficient protection from a 100-year storm.
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The floods pummeling the Midwest this week could be the last straw for many small farmers and ranchers who were already struggling to make ends meet and then had to deal with the impacts of the President’s trade wars. The New York Times explained that bankruptcy filings by farmers were up 19 percent last year across the Midwest to their highest level in a decade, and now for many of those farmers, their livestock and land have been washed away.
Continue Reading 658 wordsFlooding across the Midwest over the weekend caused residents to flee as levees were breached by the rising floodwaters and emergency workers had to use boats to rescue stranded residents of towns along the Platte, Missouri and Elkhorn Rivers, and at least two people have perished. The rising floodwaters are the aftermath of the massive storm system that pushed through the nation’s midsection on Thursday and Friday, pushing rivers to record flood levels in Nebraska, South Dakota, Iowa, and Minnesota, according to the Associated Press.
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After days of relentless rain in several counties in Northern California, the Russian River and the Eel River flooded on Wednesday reaching their highest levels in 25 years and forcing the evacuation of thousands of residents. Early on Thursday afternoon, California Gov. Gavin Newsom declared an emergency for five northern counties because the heavy storms led to the worst flooding in 20 years.
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