| May 11, 2011 | 3 |
The Mississippi River crested in Memphis at
nearly 48 feet yesterday -- not quite surpassing its all-time record
set in 1937, but still soaking low-lying areas with enough water to
require a massive cleanup. The upper Mississippi basin has been
experiencing near-record flooding for weeks now. Across Missouri,
Illinois, Kentucky, and Arkansas, heavy rains have left the ground
saturated and rivers swollen. At the same time as recovery begins in
Memphis, residents of Louisiana are working to prepare themselves for
the massive amounts of water heading their way -- experts estimate that
as many as three million acres may become submerged in the next few
days. Collected below are images of the recent floods and those who are
coping with this disaster. [35 photos]
Floodwater engulfs a home after the Army Corps of Engineers blew a
massive hole in a levee at the confluence of the Mississippi and Ohio
Rivers to divert water from the town of Cairo, Illinois May 3, 2011 near
Wyatt, Missouri. The diversion flooded about 130,000 acres of Missouri
farmland and 100 homes in the state. (Scott Olson/Getty Images) 
In this photo made May 3, 2011, water flows west on to farmland where
the Birds Point levee stood in Mississippi County, Missouri. When the
Army Corps of Engineers intentionally broke the clay levee holding back
the rising Mississippi River, muddy water came pouring over Missouri
farmland and raised fears that the fertile soil would be rendered
unusable for months if not years. But soil experts say the long-term
damage may not be so bad for farming and some land could even be planted
with soybeans later this summer. (AP Photo/Jeff Roberson) #
Water from the swollen Mississippi River surrounds the Historic Yazoo
& Mississippi Valley Railroad Company Depot in Vicksburg,
Mississippi, on May 10, 2011. More residents were warned on Monday to
get out of the way of the raging Mississippi River as it surged toward a
near-record crest in its southern reaches, prompting authorities to try
to divert some of the flood waters. (Reuters/Sean Gardner) #
Floodwater engulfs a farm after the Army Corps of Engineers blew a
massive hole in a levee at the confluence of the Mississippi and Ohio
Rivers to divert water from the town of Cairo, Illinois, on May 3, 2011
near Wyatt, Missouri. The diversion flooded about 130,000 acres of
Missouri farmland and 100 homes in the state. (Scott Olson/Getty Images) #
People gather to look at opened bays on the Bonnet Carre Spillway in
Norco, Louisiana, on Monday, May 9, 2011. The spillway, which the Army
Corps of Engineers built about 30 miles upriver from New Orleans in
response to the great flood of 1927, last opened during the spring 2008.
Monday marked the 10th time it has been opened since the structure was
completed in 1931. The spillway diverts water from the Mississippi River
to Lake Pontchartrain. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky) #
Highway T in Wayne County, Missouri, is closed Tuesday, May 3, 2011,
as raging floodwaters from Wappapello Lake, which overtopped an
emergency spillway, pour through the area and into the St. Francis
River. The waters took out a nearly 400-foot long section of the
roadway. (AP Photo/Daily American Republic, Paul Davis) #
In this image taken from video, an explosion lights up the night sky as
the the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers blows an 11,000 foot hole in the
Birds Point levee in Mississippi County, Missouri, on Monday, May 2,
2011. Army Corps of Engineers' Maj. Gen. Michael Walsh gave the order to
blow a two-mile hole into the Birds Point levee in southeast Missouri,
which will flood 130,000 acres of farmland in Missouri's Mississippi
County but protect nearby Cairo, Illinois. (AP Photo/St. Louis Post-Dispatch, David Carson) #
Mississippi wildlife law enforcement agent Hugh Johnson, walks past a
recently killed White Tail buck in Greenville, Mississippi, on Thursday,
May 5, 2011. Johnson said herds of deer, coyotes, some wild hogs and
other wildlife are swimming to Greenville because of the flooding on the
Arkansas side of the Mississippi River. And with the islands in the
river flooded over, the wildlife have no choice but swim to the shore
around Greenville or drown. This deer broke its neck when it tried to
run through a chain-link fence. (AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis) #
Water covers a gravestone May 9, 2011 in Luxora, Arkansas. Luxora sits
along the Mississippi River where the water level in the river is
currently higher than the level of the town causing the ground to be
saturated and leaving nowhere for the water in the town to drain. (Scott Olson/Getty Images) #
Temporary structures are constructed at Angola State Penitentiary in
West Feliciana Parish, Louisiana, on Monday, May 9, 2011. A convoy of
buses and vans transferred inmates with medical problems from Angola,
which is bordered on three sides by the Mississippi River, while other
inmates were moved to buildings on higher ground as part of an effort to
prepare for possible flooding. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky) #
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