Mississippi river could be impassable by Dec 10.

Missouri River is not far behind. This is why the US grain markets have been so messed up.

Nothing will get to the Port of South Louisiana if this occurs. At least nothing north of the blockage.

From
[link to www.nps.gov]

The Port of South Louisiana is one of the largest volume ports in the United States. Representing 500 million tons of shipped goods per year (according to the Port of New Orleans), the Mississippi River barge port system is significant to national trade.

Didn't this happen in summer too because of the low water. They had to close it for a couple of weeks or something.

the doom has come

Food prices through the roof!

How about a PIN

It was closed intermittently in August. Meaning they were adjusting traffic flow, not total stoppage.

I remember this. It did cause some problems.

If the Mississippi actually closes for an extended period of time, it will cause Major issues.

You can add gas and heating fuel prices to the list too. This is serious!!!



Lawmakers press Obama for action on Mississippi River

Read more here: [link to www.kentucky.com]



Low water levels have made it difficult for the corps to maintain a 9-foot-deep and 300-foot-wide navigation channel for barges along the river, an economic lifeline that carries billions of dollars of agricultural products, coal, chemicals and petroleum.

shipment of $7 billion of goods... Grain producers, chemical companies, oil refineries and electric utilities all depend on the river. Some cargo could be diverted to rail and truck, but at greater cost to shippers and eventually consumers.

Oh Great...Now its a water battle...

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) — Members of the congressional delegations from the Dakotas, Kansas and Montana are urging President Barack Obama to deny requests to aid Mississippi River navigation by authorizing additional water releases from Missouri River dams.

[link to www.businessweek.com]

chemtrails, among other things, appears to cause drought

After a drought-stricken summer when low river levels forced many river transport companies to lighten their cargo loads, the potential closure of a vital 200-mile section of the Mississippi River could have major economic effects that ripple through Middle Tennessee and beyond.


The effects from the Mississippi closure also could extend to companies that ship materials on other waterways.

“It’s an interconnected system,” said Cline Jones, executive director of the Tennessee River Valley Association. “Closure of those miles would affect river traffic across the country.”

[link to www.tennessean.com]



When you close down the nations waterways it affects everyone. This is not good!

things sure are getting interesting. when will a nuke plant melt down due to no water for cooling?

Thanks for the PIN!

Hmmm, I hadn't thought about that.

Criminy.

for the rest of the world , in america it will be fine )

Nuclear power plants use the Mississippi river water to cool down the reactors... doom? Doom!

i live in the area and i have never seen it so low and all the water in my area for that matter.

HO

LEE

S**T

Thank you for the thread, OP.

People need to be aware of this problem, as it is not being addressed at all by MSM.

On Friday, the American Waterways Operators and the Waterways Council estimated that states along the river would see an immediate impact on jobs, with potential losses in Louisiana, Illinois and Missouri the harshest – 16,744 estimated jobs in all.

[link to farmfutures.com]

It is a big deal for barges. I've been writing about this topic for a long time. Most people have no idea that barges dramatically reduced trucking because of fuel costs and the high payload amounts. When the river is low, then the payload can't be high because it will hang and scrape on the river bottom. This means less than full loads and more of them. It causes a cascade delay.

Sure they can dredge to get traffic moving, as long as it's humanly possible to engineer it, but it might mean a lot of unloading and reloading on the other side of the low lying water level. Expensive, isn't it?

We're getting a double whammy too. The drought hammered the corn crop. A large portion was used for ethanol production. This means a high likelihood of increased fuel prices, right when we'll be using more trucking because of less barge use too.

Barges transfer coal for utility plants. If they can't get coal to them, they have to truck it in, and that's very expensive.

Salt is also brought in for areas that need more due to snow production.

Very little rain falls in Winter. If we have a drier Winter than normal, then the rivers could get very low.

Already the aquifers are very low, especially in the Ogallala region.

Well that should be good for the already fucked up economy...

Your welcome!

Thank you for the post. You are absolutely correct and make very good points!

About 60 percent of the country's grain exports and 20 percent of its coal for electric generation travel by river, and those barges keep lots of big trucks off the road. Each towboat with 15 huge rusty metal barges can haul the equivalent of more than 1,000 tractor trailers, so nobody wants shipping here to grind to a halt. But even with dredges in the middle of the river and lighter loads on barges, it's still not enough. Now, it comes down to blowing up underwater rock pinnacles, a highly specialized job, according to the corps' Saint Louis district commander, Colonel Chris Hall. He hopes that work will begin by the end of January, and it could last for two months.

[link to www.npr.org]

You're welcome. Most companies went to JIT (Just-In-Time) inventory. What that means is minimizing inventories of raw materials or finished goods in order to save money on warehousing them. The only way that this procedure works is barges and trucking moving very efficiently. If it doesn't or if fuel prices rise a lot, then what happens is hurry up and wait for supplies to come or higher costs in transportation that add on to the price of the finished product. It's all bad news when barge traffic is limited.

I've been writing about this in Last Minute Tips for Parents When the SHTF, and also in Human survivability with supply chain disruptions and its effect on populations. See both topics for lots of ideas about the implications of reduced barge traffic affecting the supply chain.