US MidWest flooding update

First article on
MidWest flooding
is here:
https://el2017.blogspot.com/2019/03/us-midwest-flooding-threatens-food.html

Thousands of 

homes and farms 

were destroyed, 

and economic damage 

is in the billions 
of dollars.  

Because of 

a very snowy winter, 

a massive amount of snow 

is going to melt during 

the next several weeks.

That alone would produce 

a lot of flooding.

Forecasters are also telling us 

it will be a very rainy spring.  

The Weather Channel is

predicting “above-average 

precipitation across much 

of the lower 48” states 

over the next three months.

The Mississippi River basin 

has already received 

“three times as much 

rainfall as in a normal year”.

The recent flooding will keep 

thousands of farmers 

from planting crops on time.

Thousands of others 

are not going to be able 

to use their fields at all.

In the eastern Dakotas 

and Minnesota, more than 

20 inches of snow remains 

on the ground. 

The Missouri, Ohio, and 

Mississippi Rivers 

drain the central states.

But it takes several weeks 

for the water to travel 

downstream. 

Fueled by rapidly melting snow 

and a forecast of more rainstorms 

in the next few weeks, 

federal officials warn that 

200 million people in 25 states 

face a flood risk through May.

The entire eastern two-thirds 

of the nation could see flooding 

this spring, National Weather 

Service deputy director 

Mary Erickson said at a

news conference last Thursday. 

Some 25 states are forecast 

to see “moderate” to 
“major” flooding.

The Midwest floods are 

“a preview of what we expect 

throughout the rest of the spring,” 

Ericksom said. 

“The flooding this year 

could be worse than what 

we have seen 

in previous years 

… even worse than the 

historic floods we saw 

in 1993 and 2011,” 

Erickson added. 

The areas under the highest risk 

of moderate to major flooding, 

according to NOAA, are the 

upper, middle and lower 

Mississippi River basins, 

including the main stem 

Mississippi River, 

Red River of the North, 

Great Lakes, 

eastern Missouri River, 

lower Ohio River, 

lower Cumberland River and 

Tennessee River basins.

U.S. farmers have already lost 

millions of bushels of wheat, 

corn and soybeans to flooding 

that has already happened.