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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. >> they're 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, huh. nice. shippers are complaining the shallow river is forcing them to lighten their load. it is, t...

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. snarling shipments of all sorts of cargo. along with historic drought, sweltering summer heat for folks ...

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 family's business from being swept away. >> are you confident you can hold the river back? >> absolutely not. no, i mean, i'm confident that it's not going to go over my levees, but i'm not confident that enough of this is going to cave off and i'm going to have a breach. i would say it's 50/50. >> reporter: it's been four weeks since lumber operation ceased and all resources went into building up the company's existing levee. up ...

Normal. and he -- i couldn't say it better than him. he said this stuff is nasty. they're really concerned about that. they have security concerns as well because in vicksburg, near here, officials are saying they're patrolling the streets night and day with police and sheriff's deputies to make sure abandoned homes and businesses aren't broken into. that could be a concern for many weeks to come because we're told these waters may not go back to the banks of the mississippi for almost another month. >> all right, our brian todd reporting from near redwood, miss miss. what a mess. thank you, a...

>> reporter: it's been four weeks since lumber operations seized and all resources went into building at the company's existing levee. up to eight feet higher in some places. now, they're 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 dirt out of these levees. he calls it a battle of attrition because this water is going to stay hi...