Photography courtesy of Wikimedia Commons
Yesterday, after much rainfall farther north and no shortage of nail biting for those in towns along the river, the Mighty Mississippi finally crested. Today, it continues to fall, though backwater is rising in Lincoln County.
Here in St. Louis, downtown remained largely unscathed, besides Leonor K. Sullivan Boulevard near the Arch. Those farther north weren’t as lucky. The river flooded houses and businesses in Grafton, Ill., including the popular Loading Dock restaurant. In Clarksville, volunteers, inmates, and the National Guard built an 8-foot-high wall to stop the rising water, which crested there at 35.3 feet—within 2.5 feet of the record set during the Great Flood of 1993, according to the Post-Dispatch.
Considering the river level earlier this year, it marked a precipitous rise: On the first day of the year, the river was at –4.4 feet downtown, within 2 feet of the historic low.
Before this month, the last time the Mississippi was above flood stage was May 7, 2011—the same month in which SLM’s cover story centered on the river. Among the many facets of the river in that May 2011 cover story was an article that described how the U.S. Army Corps of Engineer works to understand the river. “Early on, like in the 1930s or so, some of the engineers didn’t have models, so they had to use intuition,” team leader Robert Davinroy told SLM. These days, he explained, engineers use “mini models”—complete with Plasti-Grit (a sandblasting material that replicates sediment) and laser scanners (the same used for computer-animated movies)—to provide blueprints for projects on the river.
Sometimes, these efforts work. And other times…
“We spend millions, if not billions, trying to control this river and work to what our needs are, but this river has the final say every time,” said Mike Clark, owner of Big Muddy Adventures, which leads guided canoe trips. Clark added that he realizes the importance of protecting homes and businesses with levies near the Mississippi River, but he underscored his general philosophy about the water’s ebb and flow. “Modeling the river is inherently fallible: There are too many variables—it’s complete and total chaos theory.”
SLM recently spoke to Clark for a feature that will appear in the June issue, one highlighting ways to get outside this summer. Clark spends hundreds of days each year on the river, having traveled the entirety of the Mississippi and Missouri rivers. During Big Muddy's trips, he teaches others about ecology and history, working to instill an appreciation for nature.
In September 2001, he and his friend John Ruskey traversed the entire Mississippi River, posting a virtual field trip along the way. Traveling through remote wetlands, Clark was among the few in the United States unaware of what had transpired in New York on the morning of September 11. The next day, he received a barrage of pleas to continue his trip, to provide students with a much-needed break from the endless stream of horrifying news. “That was when I absolutely realized that people need to check out of this completely interconnected, 24/7, 365 days of digital electronic television stimulus, to reconnect to what we all are.”
Over the course of his many trips, Clark has experienced the river from a perspective that most St. Louisans never witness firsthand. “You see how the river carves its way—it’s been doing that for centuries, and it will always do that,” he said. “To continuously think that we’re going to win the battle, like we’re at war with the river, is impossible to do.”
