‘Unusual rise’
Surging Mississippi River expected to flood crops
Don’t talk to Todd Allen about the heat. Having planted hundreds of acres of soybeans on low-lying land near the Mississippi River, he’s got another weather phenomenon to worry about: flooding.
A rare summertime surge on the Mississippi over the next several days is expected to drown tens of thousands of acres of crops on land unprotected by levees in Tennessee, Arkansas, Mississippi and Missouri. The river, which is nearly 20 feet above normal for this time of year, will crest July 7 at 30.5 feet at the Memphis gauge — just 3.5 feet below flood stage, forecasters say.
The high water is especially damaging because it is occurring long after the normal spring floods and after farmers planted crops, typically investing more than $100 an acre in seed, chemical and labor costs.
“This is a very unusual rise,” said Allen, who stands to lose about 400 acres of beans on Island 40, located just a few miles upriver from Downtown Memphis. “Normally, we let the river go up and come down before we plant. This year, it got us.”
The National Weather Service has issued a flood warning for areas along the river from the Missouri Bootheel to Greater Memphis. Flooding is possible along some low-lying roads in counties to the north of Shelby, the weather service said.
The surge on the river resulted from heavy rain and storms in the Upper Mississippi River and, more recently, in the Ohio River basin in Illinois and Indiana,
said Dave Berretta, chief of the hydraulics branch in the Corps of Engineers’ Memphis district. To prevent further flooding, operators have significantly reduced the amount of water being released from the Kentucky Dam on the Tennessee River and the Barkley Dam on the Cumberland, he said.
For farmers with crops unprotected by levees, the late highwater could be the most damaging since the flood of August 1993, farmers and agricultural officials said.
“This is a direct loss to them,” said Russ Parker, agriculture extension agent in Crittenden County for the University of Arkansas Cooperative Extension Service.
The flooding will add to the financial pressures farmers already face due to low commodity prices. “You need almost a perfect environment to survive in farming right now,” said Larry McClendon, a farmer in the Marianna, Arkansas, area who could lose 1,000 or more acres to the flooding.
Sam Stuckey, a farmer who also has crops on Island 40, said the high water could drown 400-500 acres of soybeans that had been planted early and were doing well.
“I got the best start I’ve had in years,” Stuckey said. “It was in really good shape.”
He’s hoping the water retreats in time to allow for replanting. Even if it does, yields likely will be cut in half.
But McClendon is doubtful there will be time to replant.
“By the time it floods and the water gets off it, and the land gets dry enough to plant, you’re going to be looking at the middle of July, and it’s probably too late to get a crop,” he said.