Levee Break is a Big Problem.

Len Small Levee District is at the southern tip of Illinois along the Mississippi River.  I am sure the Corps of Engineers has a reason for not fixing it, but it is surprising that Congress has not overridden them with an appropriation.  If the levee is allowed to continue to be open, there is a good chance that the Mississippi River will cut a new channel taking out roads, highways, and farm land.  It will be like trying to put the genie back in the bottle if it decides on a new route.  This is an outrageous decision on the part of the Corps of Engineers.

This spring's flood is creating problems for many because of the open break.  One farmer is selling out to get away while he can.  Read more here .  I wrote on the same subject in 2016 and included a picture of our group standing on the sand washed out of the break. 

Missouri River Management Plan Needed.

Dr. Ken Olsen of the University of Illinois is calling for a new study and management plan for the Missouri River.  Dr. Olsen is a soil scientist who studied the 2011 Mississippi and Ohio River floods, first in terms of the flood damaged soils, and later in more comprehensive manner documented in his book, "Managing Mississippi and Ohio River Landscapes."  A summary of Dr. Olsen's"Big Muddy" Missouri River Needs a Plan, article in the journal of Soil and Water Conservation.  The Missouri River Valley is a highly productive region for agricultural production, but that production is not without risk.

More Flooding Information

One of the highlights of last weekend's trip to the "real" southern Illinois was a stop at the Len Small Levee break from 2016.  The break remains un-repaired and more flooding could cut off up to 12 miles of Mississippi River channel. Check out the University of Illinois Press Release for more information.

Weekend Trip

We went to Cape Girardeau, MO this weekend for the annual Illinois Soil Classifiers Fall Tour.  Friday night discussion was lead by Dr. Ken Olson who has become an expert on flooding and Flood damages to cropland.  Dr. Olson has recently published a book on Managing Mississippi and Ohio  River Landscapes.  Doctor Olson's book is very readable and he gives a good understanding of flooding issues.  The book has over 200 illustration to improve the reader's understanding of the issues.

On Saturday we toured an un-repaired levee Break on the Len Small Levee District levee.  We also looked at the Mississippi River at Thebes and discussed the effects of the narrow valley at that point.  Other stops later in the day include a new lock and dam under construction on the Ohio River and finally a look at the confluence of the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers.  Check out Dr. Olson's book at the link above.

Bruce Putman, Bill Kreznor and Ken Olson

Olmstead Lock and Dam

Mississippi and Ohio Confluence

Floodplain Compliance

Last Winter's flooding in West Alton was serious enough that a number of structures were substantially damaged.  That means that damages exceeded 50% of the value of the structure.  The four homes below are being elevated in order to comply with floodplain management requirements.  The first step is to jack them up and rest them on cribbing.  Home owners who have flood insurance can receive  a payment to help offset the cost of the elevation.  That is called an increased cost of compliance payment.   I know two families that had paid for elevation before the flood out of their own pocket. The good news for them, is that they did not have to deal with the damages last winter.

New Book on Flooding

By : Kenneth R. Olson, Professor Emeritus of Soil Science, Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Sciences, University of Illinois, Urbana, Illinois

In July the Soil and Water Conservation Society, Book Division will be releasing their newest soil and water conservation book entitled "Managing Mississippi and Ohio River Landscapes" by Kenneth R. Olson (UIUC) and Lois Wright Morton (Iowa State University). The book cover includes porthole pictures of some of the color photographs in the book (there are 60 color maps and 160 color photographs along with 120K words in 25 chapters. The confluence of the Mississippi and Ohio is the focus of the book.  Dr. Sam Indorante wrote the Foreward. The order link should be live by the 1st of August. The 250 page (8.5 by 11") book will have a hard cover. Anticipate it will sell for a "reduced price" of  $49/copy or half price thanks to generous institutional sponsors. 

Writing this book has taken the first two years of my retirement but I was able to summarized much of my last 8 years of NRES work related to the impact of flooding series work which started with the flood of 2008. Most of the book focuses on levee breaches and the impact on soils. We recommend in the book that an updated soil survey be immediately made after every levee breach and subsequent flooding event. 

Little River Diversion Channel

Olson, Morton, and Speigel have recently published an article in the Journal of Soil and Water Conservation, concerning the Headwaters Diversion channel AKA Little River Diversion Channel in Southeast Missouri.  The channel diverts upland flow from the Castor and Whitewater Rivers along with a number of other small tributaries and prevents them from flowing through the Missouri and Arkansas Delta area.

The diversion was one of the keys to draining the Delta and making it more productive agriculturally.  The down side of many drainage and flood control projects is that these projects often transfer a problem from one place to another.  In this case, flood elevations on the Mississippi River are increased from Cape Girardeau, Missouri to Helena Arkansas because of adding 1.2 million acres of drainage area to the flow.  Click on the link to read the article Missouri Ozark Plateau HeadwatersDiversion Engineering Feat

Water Does Weird Things

In 1993 the Meramec River Guage near the mouth of the river along the Mississippi read 45.3 when levees of the Columbia Levee District overtopped.  This year the Meramec River topped out at 47.2 which was worriesome to me.  However, the Stage of the Mississippi was somewhat lower than 1993 and was able to absorb the water.  We did move antique tractors and tools to a safer location over this bridge the past two days.  I am glad we moved but even more glad that it looks like we did not need to.  Lots can still go wrong, but one hazard .

You have seen the I-55 bridge over the Meramec River was closed because of high water.  I would guess that if you ever crossed that bridge at normal water levels, you would not believe that water could close down that bridge.  It sits high above the river.

Update on Flooding

A weekend storm had lead to lots of flooding in the area around St. Louis.  In Hillsboro, water flowed through the emergency spillway on Glenn Shoals Lake.  That would be termed a 100 year flood, better categorized as a flood that has a 1% chance of occurring in any given year.

Our family farm is located in the floodplain of the Mississippi River south of St. Louis.  Flood forecasts yesterday were predicting a 44.9 reading on the St. Louis gauge.  In our area the levees will overtop with around a 49 foot level.  With more rain in the forecast, it seemed prudent to begin moving some machinery from the farm.  Lots of people were hauling grain as fast as possible with hired trucks running in addition the local farmer's trucks.  We also saw farm machinery being moved. We also saw trailers being loaded with household goods.   We do not believe that the flood levels will reach the 1993 record level, but you can't wait and see and them try to move everything in a panic.  Our friends in the West Alton and Portage DesSioux area in Missouri were already put out of their homes by the levee there overtopping.  Right now the forecast looks good for my home farm, but more rain could be a problem.  Flooding on tributaries might reach records, but it looks like the big rivers will not reach record levels from this rainfall event.

Internal Water Protected Side of Levee 

Mississippi River at the mouth of Carr Creek

Floodplain Issues

We are about to experience the second highest recorded flood on the Mississippi River.  It will probably come in third or fourth on the flow list.  Floods bring out the floodplain management specialist in me.  One of the issues that always comes up with a big flood is that we should return the floodplain to nature.  I would contend that farming is a compatible use for floodplains if you are prepared for the crop loss.

However, residences are not as compatible.  Federal Floodplain policy is to remove insurable structures from the floodplain, or flood proof them.  Elevated structures like the one below east of Litchfield are allowed.  The problem is that you u need a boat to get home.  In the case of the one below, it appears to me to be in the floodway.  Construction in a floodway is prohibited.  This house was allowed because of a poorly drawn map.  The house is about 50 feet from Shoal Creek and stream bank erosion could easily compromise it.

Anniversary of Hurricane Katrina

I was attending a meeting in St. Louis as Hurricane Katrina came to shore.  It was close to a year after my retirement from USDA.  As news reports came in, I thought that perhaps some of my experience could be put to use in Louisiana.  I sent a resume to FEMA and I had a phone interview shortly.  It took until almost Thanksgiving before I heard from them again.  I left for Orlando the day after Thanksgiving to report for mustering in and training.  After a week of 11 hour days training in Florida we reported to Baton Rouge.  I spent most of my time inventorying properties that had repetitive claims for flood insurance.  I went all over Louisiana and saw a lot of devastation everywhere.  The second picture below, sums it up.  A house sitting on a pickup truck in the Lower Ninth Ward in New Orleans.  Tom Brokaw reported from in front of that house a year later.  The mess was still being cleaned up.

The people of Louisiana were very nice to me.  I made the acquaintance of Rodger in the third picture down and we worked together many days.  I still hear from him from time to time.  I worked 6 days a week 12 hours a day until Christmas.  After Christmas, We did 11 hour days and got Saturday afternoons off.  I stayed in Port Allen across the river from Baton Rouge after Christmas.  The people below also became friends and even invited me to their superbowl party.  I was also able to celebrate Mardi Gras season in Baton Rouge and New Orleans.  Despite news reports to the contrary, I never met anyone who treated me badly.

It is gratifying to see the ten year anniversary reports on television showing how well the area has recovered.  I am proud to have been a small part of that effort.

Why did we need to save New Orleans?  It is an area that is very important to commerce and agriculture.  A large portion of our agricultural exports go through New Orleans.  A large part of a our petroleum imports come through New Orleans.  The port of New Orleans extends up the Mississippi River as far as Baton Rouge.  There are 47 refineries located in the area.  If we did not restore New Orleans, we would have needed to build a new port and all that infrastructure somewhere else.  A new city would like not have been any safer from hurricanes than New Orleans, and would have been much more expensive.

Having lived through the flood of 1993 on the Mississippi River, I saw first hand what it takes to recover from a major disaster.  Some people asked me how long I thought it would take to recover in Louisiana.  I told them that it would take at least 5 years until you could look around and say, "It looks like we are recovering."  I said it would take 10 years until things really felt "normal" again, but it would be a new normal.  I am sure that 10 years later we can still find damage, but it is good that the people are back and that commerce continues to move in Louisiana.

Levees are more than meets they eye

Dr. Ken Olson and his Co-author Lois Wright Morton have written a series of articles concerning flooding especially in southern Illinois, Missouri, and Kentucky based on experiences in that areas during the flood of 2011.  Olson and Morton have done  good job of talking about the effects of flooding on soils and agriculture.  In the latest article they explain how Slurry trenches and relief wells are installed to strengthen Ohio and Mississippi river levee systems.  Click on the link to see how there is more than meets the eye when it comes to levees.  The seepage control is an important component of the system, are often not visible at least to the untrained eye.

West Alton Area

This whole field was flood damaged in St. Charles County.  There are lots of wet holes and swales.  The good news is that levees are holding.

More on Wetness

I went to Vandalia today to do  septic tank investigation.  The photos below give some clue.  Crops are drowned and yellow.  Soybeans remain unplanted.  Major rivers are flooding and levees are over topping in some places.  I could be mistaken but so far, even though the rainfall pattern is similar to 1993, the amounts do not seem quite as large and we do get  a dry day once in a while. However, consider that at least in St. Louis, we are nearing a top 20 gauge reading.  In some tributaries, gauge readings have exceeded 1993 records.

Yellow and drowned corn

Yellow and drowned soybeans

Unplanted

Planter waiting for dry weather

Very Wet

The photo below shows the Mississippi River out of bank at Alton. I took a trip to Portage Des Sioux today and did not see any dry land.  I have not heard anyone talk prevented planting on soybeans, but it could happen.  The Missouri River is also out of bank.

Clark Bridge at Alton, IL

Flood Plain Management

The house below is in a floodplain in Missouri.  It appears to meet flood plain construction requirements except for one small flaw.  The Air conditioner should be at least as high as the first floor.  Elevating things like air conditioners and electrical services can be relatively inexpensive ways to reduce flood damages.

What Happens to Cropland in a Flood?

Dr. Ken Olson has studied flood damages to cropland extensively since the flood of 2011.  Dr. Olson's work is summarized in a news release from the University of Illinois College of ACES.  Be sure to click on the links for all the information.  The best part about his work is that the Mississippi River Commission and the Army Corps of Engineers are expected to sign an agreement to redo soil surveys as part of flood recovery.  It will be interesting to see how the updates are distributed. 

Levee Repair

The levee below was damaged near Portage de Sioux, MO in the flood of 2013.  This spot held, but needed major repairs.  It protects thousands of acres of cropland and the villages of Portage de Sioux and West Alton. A slide and a corroded culvert caused problems in this area. 

Flood Insurance Changes

The House of Representatives has recently passed an act to reform FEMA's implementation of increased flood insurance rates to those who have been in compliance with the National Flood Insurance Program in the past.  Why  is this important to agriculture?  Many insured structures in the program are agricultural buildings.  Any building is insurable in counties that participate in the flood insurance program.  It is not limited to residential property. 

Some years ago FEMA embarked on map modernization program to make all maps electronic and to improve the science that went into making the maps.  It turned into a good idea gone awry.  As areas were remapped, home-owners who in the  past were in compliance, suddenly were out of compliance and placed into a high risk, high rate group.  The new bill places limits on flood insurance rate increases.  It also increases public review requirements for remapping projects.

When I was a FEMA floodplain management specialist, I would sometime hear people say that they were told that they were not eligible for flood insurance because they were not in a floodplain.  One of the reasons that  re-mapping was done to start with was that 25% of flood damages were not in floodplains.  Keep in mind that everyone in a community that has floodplain ordinance is eligible for flood insurance whether they live in a floodplain or not.  Here is more information on the reform recently passed.  Also keep in mind that flooding of cropland is only covered by crop insurance, not by flood insurance. 

Flood of 1993

For people who live or have families who live and work in the floodplains of our large Rivers, the Flood of 1993 will live long in our memories.  Many acres of cropland and thousands of homes were flooded by relentless summer rains.  Valmeyer, IL is still home for many family members.  West Alton, MO is the home of many customers.  The St. Louis Post-Dispatch ran a special this week recalling the flood.  In 1993 I was working for the St. Louis District of the Corps of Engineers.  The flood occupied my every waking moment for about two months.  I worked to help preserve the Lock and Dam at Clarksville and in my time off, I worked to help family move household goods, farm equipment, and anything else that was not attached to the ground.  I worked we'll into 1994 on repair and recovery at the Corps of Engineers.  I would like to write a book.  There are so many stories and I know a few of them.