The impacts of river flooding

AccuWeather

AccuWeather Flooding Expert Alex Sosnowski explains the flood warnings in the southeastern U.S. and around the Mississippi River.

Transcript

00:00Joining me right now is AccuWeather flooding expert Alex Zuznowski.

00:03You know, Alex, before we get into some of the graphics, let's talk about the Mississippi.

00:08Over the last few years, we've had extremes on both ends, at times very low water levels,

00:16and then we've been dealing with flooding.

00:18Now we're dealing with flooding, but a lot of extreme changes on the Mississippi the last couple of the years.

00:25Yeah, that kind of goes along with the climate extremes that have been going on,

00:29and don't be surprised if we don't have to deal with some low water levels again at some point this summer.

00:34Typically later on in the summer or into the fall, river levels, stream levels tend to run low

00:39unless you have a tropical system hanging around. That's always a possibility.

00:44All right, let's take a look at this, Alex. The flood warnings are out,

00:46and you know, you could just look at the flood warnings and follow the rivers.

00:51Yeah, a lot of that dark green you see on there, those are the flood warnings,

00:55and that's in the flatlands, the rivers that kind of meander through those areas there.

01:00It takes a long time for them to cycle through because the terrain is flat and the volume of water that they handle.

01:06But notice that extends all the way down pretty much nearly the full extent of the Mississippi.

01:11It kind of breaks up down below Baton Rouge a little bit because you're into the Delta region there,

01:16and some of the other streams there are taking water away from the main stem.

01:19And you can see the dots there, yeah.

01:25Yeah, on this map here, we have, this is our current state of the rivers.

01:30Red is moderate flooding, and purple is major.

01:34And notice that things have improved substantially there along the headwaters of Ohio,

01:39but you get down below near the confluence of the Mississippi and Ohio, things change substantially.

01:43Take a look at that out of Vicksburg here.

01:46Now, Alex, I think we're at about 39 feet right now in Vicksburg,

01:50and we're forecast to go another 15, 16 feet over the next 10 days or so.

01:56Yeah, there's still some substantial rise coming to this part of the Mississippi.

02:01The river has crested out or is at crested upstream in Osceola, Arkansas,

02:05but it's still got a few days to go here yet at Vicksburg.

02:08And you can see the clearance of the bridge, under the bridge there.

02:13That becomes a problem for some of the barges.

02:15The river's flowing fast through that area,

02:17so the barges can't push as much barge, as much weight.

02:23So it kind of does affect the river traffic.

02:26And, of course, the high water in there tends to close some of the ports.

02:30Now, future rainfall doesn't look like a whole lot there, Alex,

02:33but really quickly as we go forward, the flooding continues.

02:36You have about six or seven seconds there.

02:39Okay, the inundation is going to continue to work its way downstream here.

02:43Baton Rouge, we're probably a little over a week away here from a crest,

02:47but it will be a major stage there.

02:49Moderate to major flooding on the lower stem of the Mississippi here.

02:52Not so the case in New Orleans.

02:55Again, it looks like some of the channeling away will help them out down there.

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