Mo. Governor, Barge Industry Urge Action on Rivers.

[elleng]

Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon and the barge industry are imploring the federal government to take steps to keep enough water flowing on the drought-ridden Missouri and Mississippi rivers to avert a potential "economic disaster."

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2012/11/12/us/ap-us-drought-river-shipping.html?hp

[Viking12]

1. Maybe the U.S.A.C.E. will call on their magic unicorn squad to make rain

[happyslug]

4. Hurricane Sandy did a lot of good, oops, that the Ohio and the lower Mississppi....

St Louis is about 50 miles NORTH of where the Ohio joins the Mississippi river and brings with it most of the Water that goes into the Lower Mississippi (If proper naming had been used the Lower Mississippi and the Ohio would be called one river, the upper Mississippi the tributary).

The Ohio reaches Pittsburgh (where if proper naming had been used, the Ohio would include the Allegheny River, the larger of the two rivers that merge at Pittsburgh to form the Ohio).

Side note: By the term "proper naming" is a reference to the concept where two rivers join, the River formed retains the name of the Larger in water volume of the two rivers. Thus the Allegheny River is the larger river in Pittsburgh and should have been called the Ohio (Which the French actually did when they held the area). The same aT Cairo Illinois, when the Ohio joins the Mississippi. At that point the Ohio it the larger river, but due to how La Salle, the first white man to sail down the Mississippi, sailed down the Mississippi the Ohio was called a tributary not the main river even by the French.

Hurricane Sandy dumped a lot of water into the Allegheny River Drainage area, which means that water is headed down the Ohio to the Mississippi River, but NOT St Louis. Lesser amounts, but still a lot of Rain, fell into the Monongahela and Kanawha river drainage areas, thus adding more water to the Ohio. Basically you are looking at the western 1/3 of Pennsylvania and almost all of West Virginia. Both hit with Heavy Rain by Sandy.

Yes, the main concern is the area between St Louis and Cario. An area where none of the waters of Sandy will affect.

Allegheny and Monongahela drainage area:

http://www.lrp.usace.army.mil/wm/


Kanawha Watershed Map

[madrchsod]

2. this has been an on going problem since the start of steamboats on the Mississippi

today it`s become a huge problem that has to be addressed. one barge contains 70 semi trucks worth of freight. start adding up the cost of moving one barge worth of goods over the highway system in the north-south corridor of the usa.

[phantom power]

3. it's all hippie tree-hugging fun and games until somebody starts losing some money

oh wait, wrong gov. still, getting less funny every year.