AccuWeather Flooding Expert Alex Sosnowski explains the flood warnings in the southeastern U.S. and around the Mississippi River.
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00:00Joining me right now is AccuWeather flooding expert Alex Zuznowski.
00:03You know, Alex, before we get into some of the graphics, let's talk about the Mississippi.
00:08Over the last few years, we've had extremes on both ends, at times very low water levels,
00:16and then we've been dealing with flooding.
00:18Now we're dealing with flooding, but a lot of extreme changes on the Mississippi the last couple of the years.
00:25Yeah, that kind of goes along with the climate extremes that have been going on,
00:29and don't be surprised if we don't have to deal with some low water levels again at some point this summer.
00:34Typically later on in the summer or into the fall, river levels, stream levels tend to run low
00:39unless you have a tropical system hanging around. That's always a possibility.
00:44All right, let's take a look at this, Alex. The flood warnings are out,
00:46and you know, you could just look at the flood warnings and follow the rivers.
00:51Yeah, a lot of that dark green you see on there, those are the flood warnings,
00:55and that's in the flatlands, the rivers that kind of meander through those areas there.
01:00It takes a long time for them to cycle through because the terrain is flat and the volume of water that they handle.
01:06But notice that extends all the way down pretty much nearly the full extent of the Mississippi.
01:11It kind of breaks up down below Baton Rouge a little bit because you're into the Delta region there,
01:16and some of the other streams there are taking water away from the main stem.
01:19And you can see the dots there, yeah.
01:25Yeah, on this map here, we have, this is our current state of the rivers.
01:30Red is moderate flooding, and purple is major.
01:34And notice that things have improved substantially there along the headwaters of Ohio,
01:39but you get down below near the confluence of the Mississippi and Ohio, things change substantially.
01:43Take a look at that out of Vicksburg here.
01:46Now, Alex, I think we're at about 39 feet right now in Vicksburg,
01:50and we're forecast to go another 15, 16 feet over the next 10 days or so.
01:56Yeah, there's still some substantial rise coming to this part of the Mississippi.
02:01The river has crested out or is at crested upstream in Osceola, Arkansas,
02:05but it's still got a few days to go here yet at Vicksburg.
02:08And you can see the clearance of the bridge, under the bridge there.
02:13That becomes a problem for some of the barges.
02:15The river's flowing fast through that area,
02:17so the barges can't push as much barge, as much weight.
02:23So it kind of does affect the river traffic.
02:26And, of course, the high water in there tends to close some of the ports.
02:30Now, future rainfall doesn't look like a whole lot there, Alex,
02:33but really quickly as we go forward, the flooding continues.
02:36You have about six or seven seconds there.
02:39Okay, the inundation is going to continue to work its way downstream here.
02:43Baton Rouge, we're probably a little over a week away here from a crest,
02:47but it will be a major stage there.
02:49Moderate to major flooding on the lower stem of the Mississippi here.
02:52Not so the case in New Orleans.
02:55Again, it looks like some of the channeling away will help them out down there.
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