Page 3 - Driver Traffic News Today

Mississippi river remains closed this morning as water levels there dip to their lowest in nearly 25 years. about 100 boats and barges are now waiting for passage near greenville, mississippi. parts of the river have had intermittent closures since a vessel ran aground ten days ago. dredging is keeping river traffic flowing along cities like memphis. >> theyre having to go to a lighter draft, we have been able to keep the channel open and keep the industry running. >> the guy should do radio, hu...

Cover their losses. cattle owners stand to take a serious hit. they are having to feed their cows more expensive feed which is raising beef prices. the drought has also lowered the water level of the mississippi river, obviously a key cargo route through the midwest and all the way down south and today officials shut down river traffic in two locations after they say barges ran aground in wisconsin and mississippi. these pictures show just how low the water level has fallen in recent weeks. snar...

Five generations at the jm jones lumber company, but i find him strictly in the business of surviving. building up and trying to hold together a levee that keeps his familys business from being swept away. >> are you confident you can hold the river back? >> absolutely not. no, i mean, im confident that its not going to go over my levees, but im not confident that enough of this is going to cave off and im going to have a breach. i would say its 50/50. >> reporter: its been four weeks since lumb...

Normal. and he -- i couldnt say it better than him. he said this stuff is nasty. theyre really concerned about that. they have security concerns as well because in vicksburg, near here, officials are saying theyre patrolling the streets night and day with police and sheriffs deputies to make sure abandoned homes and businesses arent broken into. that could be a concern for many weeks to come because were told these waters may not go back to the banks of the mississippi for almost another month. ...

>> reporter: its been four weeks since lumber operations seized and all resources went into building at the companys existing levee. up to eight feet higher in some places. now, theyre constantly plugging, bagging and patching what the river gouges away. >> you can tell this is a patch deal here. we, our primary tarp was ripped. >> reporter: compounding the problem, river traffic, boats pushing barges upstream stir up waves that jones says has been doing some real damage. pounding away fragile d...

Could easily happen. >> reporter: without the diversion of massive amounts of water by the army corps of engineers, this flood would soon be pushing water over the new orleans levees. with the morganza spillway opening, the rising mississippi is abruptly cresting here a week early. at 17 feet, it is still just 3 feet from going over the top. just 3 feet from the top. that still sounds like a near miss to me. >> well, again, it is -- were watching this very careful. we are not out of the woods ye...

They cant operate if theyre heavily flooded. the floods have stalled some river traffic and that could also force companies to halt pipeline flows or they could lead to congestion on railroads. all of that contributes to higher prices at the pump if that river traffic is stalled. the mississippi river is a key transport hub in this country. kiran? >> were feeling the reverb bragss very far from where those floodwaters are. meantime to libya where rebels are fending off heavy shelling and rocket ...

What drat mattockly we dont know the end game. but arkansas is reporting 1 million acres submerged. in mississippi, corn and wheat are threatened to be destroyed completely. the bottom line, food prices up and also, you know, its a timeline with this corn and soybeans are already at elevated levels, so exacerbated by this water. so weve got game, the ag industry and impact at the pump. in louisiana, refineries could shut down. river traffic stalled for the mighty mississippi. its a huge artery w...

Quick move going down. barge traffic, river traffic, has been shut off way to the north of here. but the big problem for bashlg barges isnt so much navigating these floodwaters, it is that their destinations might be underwater. all of these barges that are on the riff, everybody had plenty of warnings down this way and into the south to make sure that everything was secure or at least as secure as it could be. the coast guard doing a great job going up and down this river, making everything the...

Again on the mississippi river after a barge got stuck over the weekend. that barge ran past buoys that marked the shipping channel near greenville, mississippi. 18 vessels were waiting to head north. 21 waited to head south. water levels, as we reported last week, had been fluctuating wildly due to the drought. river traffic came to a standstill just last week. in other news this morning, rural southern california has been rattled by dozens of small or moderate earthquakes. experts say the jo...