Please pray for those living along the Mississippi River. They are going to need it. The tornadoes that just ripped through the southeast U.S. are being called one of the worst natural disasters in American history, and now the flooding along the Mississippi River may top the damage done by those tornadoes. In fact, some are now projecting that this will be the worst Mississippi River flood ever recorded since the United States became a nation. You don’t believe that? Well, Bob Anderson, an Army Corps of Engineers spokesman based in Vicksburg, Mississippi says that there has “never been a flood of this magnitude on the upper Mississippi“. And you know what they say – “never” is a really, really long time. Hopefully everyone in the region has really good flood insurance. The flood that this is being compared to is the great 1937 Mississippi River flood. That flood was so nightmarish that it changed the whole way that the U.S. government approaches floods, but now this flood is surpassing the record levels set back in 1937 in many areas. This truly is a historic flood.
This is not a disaster that happens over one or two days and then is over. This disaster is going to literally take weeks to unfold. Residents of 8 states are bracing for the worst.
Many are rapidly filling sandbags and are trying to keep the flood waters at bay. Others are packing up and getting ready to evacuate.
The flood is so massive that it actually has caused some of the tributaries along the Mississippi River to actually start flowing backwards.
So how long is this flooding going to last?
At this point, the Mississippi River is expected to crest at 48 feet around May 11th.
But this disaster will last much longer than that.
Authorities are saying that the Mississippi River could stay at flood stage for more than a month.
The economic damage, the property damage and the loss of crops is going to be incalculable.
It is important to understand that this is just not another flood. This is literally a history changing nightmare.
Just check out this quote from Gene Rench of the National Weather Service….
“Right now the Mississippi river is in the process of going through what we call an epic flood, meaning it’s more than historic, it’s more than a 100 year flood, it’s more like a 500 year flood.”
A “500 year flood”?
That is some pretty strong language.
Part of the problem is that the Ohio River and the Mississippi River are both flooding at the same time. In a recent article on CNN, local farmer Bob Byrne described the damage and noted that this is the first time he has ever seen both of those mighty rivers flood at the same time….
“We’ve seen the Ohio River rampage, water right up to the top of the levee. We’ve seen this one (Mississippi) on the rampage, but never the two together.”
Byrne also said that the loss of wheat crops that he has already suffered comes to about $40,000.
Sadly, this flooding is going to cost the region billions upon billions of dollars.
But didn’t we just see another disaster that is going to cost billions upon billions of dollars?
Yes we did.
The “tornadoes of 2011” absolutely destroyed big chunks of the southeast United States.
There was one mile-wide tornado with winds over 200 MPH that basically ripped Tuscaloosa, Alabama to shreds. There are parts of Tuscaloosa that look like they have been through a nuclear war.
What in the world is going on?
In just one 24 hour period last week, there were a whopping 226 active tornadoes in the United States.
Overall, there were approximately 600 tornadoes in the United States during April. That is the most tornadoes that have ever been recorded in a single month in all of American history.
Usually, there are only about 1,200 tornadoes in the U.S. during an entire year.
Meanwhile, the state of Texas is being ravaged by drought and wildfires. So far the wildfires down in Texas have scorched more than 2 million acres.
Why is all of this happening to us?
Could it be just a coincidence that so many “historic” natural disasters are happening all at once or is something else going on here?
Feel free to leave a comment with your thoughts below, and please remember to pray for the millions of Americans that are suffering through these disasters right now.
18 Startling Quotes About The Incredible Destruction Caused By Hurricane Sandy
We have truly seen some unprecedented things during this storm. For example, a 168 foot long tanker was driven ashore on Staten Island. Right now the tanker is sitting on Front Street.
In the beachfront Queens neighborhood of Breezy Point, a massive fire broke out and burned just about everything that was not already flooded. The blaze destroyed close to 100 homes, and by the end of the fire more than 190 firefighters were battling it.
Some areas in the West Virginia mountains have already had up to 3 feet of snow, and yet it just continues to fall. When all of that snow starts to melt in a few days, tremendous flooding is anticipated.
The northeast has never seen a storm quite like this, and the ripple effects are going to be felt for years to come.
The following are 18 startling quotes about the incredible destruction caused by Hurricane Sandy…
#1 New Jersey Governor Chris Christie
“The devastation on the Jersey Shore is some of the worst we’ve ever seen. The cost of the storm is incalculable at this point.”
#2 MTA Chairman Joseph Lhota
“The New York City subway system is 108 years old, but it has never faced a disaster as devastating as what we experienced last night. Hurricane Sandy wreaked havoc on our entire transportation system, in every borough and county of the region. It has brought down trees, ripped out power and inundated tunnels, rail yards and bus depots. As of last night, seven subway tunnels under the East River flooded. Metro-North Railroad lost power from 59th Street to Croton-Harmon on the Hudson Line and to New Haven on the New Haven Line. The Long Island Rail Road evacuated its West Side Yards and suffered flooding in one East River tunnel. The Hugh L. Carey Tunnel is flooded from end to end and the Queens Midtown Tunnel also took on water and was closed. Six bus garages were disabled by high water. We are assessing the extent of the damage and beginning the process of recovery. Our employees have shown remarkable dedication over the past few days, and I thank them on behalf of every New Yorker. In 108 years, our employees have never faced a challenge like the one that confronts us now. All of us at the MTA are committed to restoring the system as quickly as we can to help bring New York back to normal.”
#3 Hoboken, New Jersey Mayor Dawn Zimmer
“The Hudson River came in and filled half of Hoboken like a bathtub”
#4 Little Ferry resident Leo Quigley
“I looked out and the next thing you know, the water just came up through the grates. It came up so quickly you couldn’t do anything about it. If you wanted to move your car to higher ground you didn’t have enough time”
#5 New Jersey resident Montgomery Dahm
“I mean, there’s cars that are just completely underwater in some of the places I would never believe that there would be water.”
#6 Mobile home park resident Juan Allen
“I watched a tree crush a guy’s house like a wet sponge.”
#7 Angela Valenta, mother of 9-year-old Angelo Valenta
“He kept saying, ‘Am I going to die?'”
#8 U.S. Representative Bob Turner
“I, along with many other Breezy Point residents, lost our homes last night and I am grateful that my family and I are safe after this destructive storm. I hope you will join me in lending a hand to those who were less fortunate and keep everyone impacted by this storm in your thoughts and prayers.”
#9 Long Branch, New Jersey resident David Arnold
“The ocean is in the road, there are trees down everywhere. I’ve never seen it this bad.”
#10 New York resident William Yaeck
“I am looking outside of my sixth-floor apartment, and I see that a new lake has formed in the parking lot adjacent (to) my building”
#11 Motel owner Peter Sandomeno
“There are boats in the street five blocks from the ocean”
#12 West Virginia meteorologist Reed Timmer
“It’s 3 feet of heavy snow. It’s like concrete”
#13 Maryland State Police dispatcher Bill Wiltson
“It’s like a long-tailed cat in a room full of rocking chairs up here”
#14 Con Edison spokeswoman Sara Banda
“This is the largest storm-related outage in history”
#15 John Miksad, senior vice president for electric operations at Con Edison
“This will be one for the record books”
#16 New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg
“Clearly the challenges our city faces in the coming days are enormous”
#17 New York Governor Andrew Cuomo
“You want to talk about a situation that gets old very quickly. You are sitting in a house with no power and you can’t open the refrigerator”
#18 National Weather Service meteorologist Joe Pollina
“It was an extremely devastating and destructive storm, hopefully one that people will only see once in their lifetime”
So what will this storm ultimately cost the U.S. economy? Well, Fox News is reporting that the total cost could reach 45 billion dollars. Others estimate that the economic toll may be even higher than that.
But one thing is for certain – at a time when layoffs are already surging, this is definitely not going to help. The U.S. economy is showing lots of signs of slowing down again, and this storm may have just nudged us even farther in that direction.
Hopefully we will have some time to recover before the next major crisis strikes, but with the election coming up early next week that does not seem too likely.