Free Republic

Washington, D.C. (AHN) - Up to 12.3 billion bushels of corn are expected to be harvested this season in the U.S., despite the recent Mississippi flooding which inundated many farms in the Midwest. With 600 million extra bushels for the summer harvest, it will be the second-highest corn yield on record, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.Prior to the confirmation of the bountiful harvest, there were fears the Midwest flooding could lead to food shortages and major economic losses for American farmers. Before perfect weather was enjoyed by farmers recently, corn future prices rose to $8 per bushel. On...

<p>Emergency personnel evacuated about 700 people from Ruidoso and Ruidoso Downs early Sunday as the rain-swollen Rio Ruidoso overwhelmed several bridges in town, coursed over roads, damaged homes and stranded dozens of campers in the area.</p>

2008 Corn & Soybean Yield Expectations In Midwest Study URBANA, Ill. - A new study by University of Illinois agricultural economists projects that average 2008 corn yields could be reduced by 2.9 bushels per acre in Illinois, 3.5 bushels in Indiana, and 6.3 bushels in Iowa due to later-than-normal planting and above-normal precipitation in May. Soybean yields may be down 1.1 bushels, 0.4 bushels, and 1.0 bushels per acre, respectively, in those same states for the same reasons.

Is it really true that the people of Iowa and Wisconsin are morally superior to the residents of New Orleans? That certainly seems to be the attitude of some Wisconsin State Journal readers who send me e-mails on a daily basis crowing about how victims of the floods of Cedar Rapids aren't whining or asking for hand-outs, unlike the victims of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans. The messages take the same perspective: When floodwaters drowned downtown Cedar Rapids, people got to work filling sandbags and helping one another. When the residents of New Orleans were drowned in the floodwaters unleashed...

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind., July 1 (UPI) -- A Purdue economist says U.S. corn demand is exceeding supply and, combined with Midwestern flood losses, ethanol production might soon stall. Purdue University agricultural economist Chris Hurt says with higher corn prices, fewer ethanol producers can afford the feedstock. In turn, domestic livestock producers and foreign buyers are finding it more difficult to obtain grain. "Everybody is trying to evaluate how many bushels of corn we've lost because of weather-related damage, what the implications are for prices and who can pay these high prices," said Hurt. Using a similar 1993 Midwest flood as...

The Pin Oak Levee at Winfield has collapsed in Missouri and Muskrats may be to blame for weakening the levee to its last moments of strength. A collapsed levee along the Mississippi River has left a nearby town with a flash-flood warning and imminent danger and raging water. The Pin Oak Levee is a corner levee protecting a small town of about one hundred homes - but according to officials, the water will "ultimately inundate" at least part of the town.

What residents were hoping they could avoid has happened in St. Charles. As feared, part of the Elm Point Levee has burst and water is rushing through right now at a rapid pace. Authorities say that the levee burst in two spots around 1:30 a.m. on Tuesday. One of those holes is reportedly the size of a football field. Several homes and businesses in the area are now flooded. Officials say that residents in that area voluntarily evacuated before the breach.    Google map link

WASHINGTON, June 23, 2008 – Missouri is the latest Midwestern state to see increasing numbers of National Guard citizen-soldiers and –airmen on duty in the face of the region’s worst flooding in 15 years. “Our priority is to protect the lives of Missouri’s residents and their property,” Missouri Gov. Matt Blunt said during a visit to flood-affected areas with National Guard officials. “Then we will focus on recovery efforts.” “As Missourians continue to face the rising waters of the Mississippi, their Missouri National Guard stands beside them in the fight,” Army Maj. Gen. King Sidwell, the state’s adjutant general, said....

During the week after Father’s Day, I received a number of interesting emails from readers asking me to write about the dearth of looting after the recent floods in Iowa. Specifically, they wanted me to write about the reason there was so much more looting in New Orleans after Katrina hit the “Chocolate City” in 2005. Of course, the problem involves so much more than race – a factor most people are thinking about, even if they won’t admit it...

Barack Obama stooped to a new low in his campaign of division and distraction on Saturday when he scraped the bottom of the barrel in his inference that John McCain may be partially to , blame for levee collapses throughout the region. In a prepared statement Obama stated, "I know ...

It was only a matter of time until the mainstream media began ramping up global warming alarmism by connecting flooding in the Midwest to climate change. ABC’s “World News with Charles Gibson” took a page out of the alarmists’ playbook – connecting natural disasters to global warming, which according to the broadcast is caused by mankind’s use of fossil fuels. The segment, which led off the network’s June 19 broadcast, cited a government report that stated there’s definitive evidence such a link exists. “[T]oday, the administration report draws a clear link between this destructive and severe weather and the fossil...

The floodwaters are rising, swamping cities, breaching levees. Tens of thousands are displaced. Many are dead. No, I am not talking about Hurricane Katrina, but about the Midwest United States. As the floodwaters head south along the Mississippi, devastating communities one after another, the media are overflowing with televised images of the destruction. While the TV meteorologists document "extreme weather" with their increasingly sophisticated toolbox, from Doppler radar to 3-D animated maps, the two words rarely uttered are its cause: global warming. I asked former Energy Department official Joseph Romm, senior fellow at the Center for American Progress, about the...

6/19/2008 - GREEN BAY BOTTOM, Iowa (AFPN) -- The men and women of the 185th Air Refueling Squadron from Sioux City, Iowa, are teaming with local farmers to maintain the 20 miles of levees, keeping the flooded Mississippi from inundating the 14 thousand acres of homes and farmland here. The river is flowing 23 feet over flood levels and 20 feet over the corn fields that line it near the farming community of Burlington in Green Bay Bottom, Iowa. "It would have been devastating without the (Air National) Guard here," said local resident Robert Mozingo, a retired mechanical engineer who...

WASHINGTON, June 18, 2008 – Thousands of National Guard troops in the Midwest have moved into high gear reinforcing levees, conducting security patrols, and delivering food, water and relief supplies as record-breaking floods surged through the heartland. Ottumwa, Iowa, residents and members of the Iowa National Guard work hand-in-hand to save a power substation from being overrun by flood waters. Iowa National Guard photo by Army Sgt. Chad D. Nelson  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. Nearly 4,000 Iowa National Guard troops are deployed across the state as flood levels break records in almost every river community on the...

OAKVILLE, Iowa -- Southeastern Iowa and other parts of the Midwest filled sandbags in anticipation of the Mississippi River's wrath Tuesday as the rest of Iowa began the slow move from protection to cleanup. The federal government predicts that 27 levees could potentially overflow along the river if the weather forecast is on the mark and a massive sandbagging effort fails to raise the level of the levees, according to a map obtained Monday by the Associated Press.

The historic flooding of the Cedar River last week sent water into the Mother Mosque of America, likely destroying nearly a century's worth of records, documents and artifacts, officials said Monday. Imam Taha Tawil, executive director of the mosque, 1335 Ninth St. SW, said no one expected the floodwaters to come as far as the building, the oldest surviving mosque in the United States. "I couldn't even believe that this would happen or that it would come close to us," Tawil said Monday. "In 1993 I was there, and it didn't reach even Second or Third Street." Tawil said he...

6/16/2008 - CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (AFPN) -- One hundred-fifty Air National Guardsmen from the 185th Air Refueling Wing in Sioux City, Iowa, landed at The Eastern Iowa Airport June 15 to augment the 295 already working with Army National Guard and state agencies in Cedar Rapids as flood waters recede from what is being called the 500-year mark. This is one of the largest operations for the wing in several years. It's also the first time in recent memory the Iowa ANG has been recalled for duty by the state. "I've been in for 22 years and this is the...

6/16/2008 - INDIANAPOLIS (AFPN) -- Some Indiana National Guardsmen began returning to their homes on June 15, while others began the next phase of their flood duty in the southwest part of the state -- recovery. Joint Task Force - 81 will have 60 of its 1,300 deployed Soldiers stay behind in the vicinity of East Mount Carmel and New Harmony, Ind., said Lt. Col. Deedra Thombleson, the state public affairs officer. These Soldiers will work with local responders to observe the water level at local levees. "The water levels are receding, and the rain coming doesn't look like its...

WASHINGTON, June 16, 2008 – More than 600 National Guard members in Illinois and Missouri are continuing sandbagging operations along the Mississippi River today in an effort to thwart the flood waters that are subsiding in Iowa. Soldiers from 1138th Transportation Company, based at Jefferson Barracks, Mo., fill sandbags June 15, 2008, in Clarksville, Mo., an area expected to get more flood water this week. Photo by Gary Stevens, Missouri National Guard  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. The Illinois and Missouri rivers flow into the Mississippi River just north of St. Louis. Flooding on those rivers is not...

Minneapolis police officers and Hennepin County sheriff's deputies have stepped in to help law enforcement in flood-ravaged Cedar Rapids, Iowa. By noon Sunday, Minneapolis Deputy Chief of Patrol Rob Allen along with 1 lieutenant, two sergeants and six officers were helping local police prevent theft and other crimes in areas of the Cedar Rapids where flood waters were beginning to recede and residents were being allowed to return to their homes on a limited basis, said Jesse Garcia, a Minneapolis Police Department spokesman. Minneapolis police personnel were joined by 10 deputies and supervisors from the Hennepin County Sheriff's Office. In...

The streets in Cedar Rapids, Iowa - all 400 blocks of them - were filled with floodwaters and other strange sights: floating Dumpsters and utility poles and sandbags piled in vain. The cresting Cedar River wreaked widespread havoc Friday on Iowa's second-largest city, forcing the evacuation of 3,000 homes and a downtown hospital while collapsing a railroad bridge.

Rising water from the Cedar River forced the evacuation of a downtown hospital Friday after residents of more than 3,000 homes fled for higher ground. A railroad bridge collapsed, and 100 city blocks were under water. Cedar Rapids was the hardest-hit city in Iowa, where Gov. Chet Culver declared 83 of the state's 99 counties as state disaster areas and nine rivers were at or above historic flood levels. Elsewhere in the upper Midwest, rivers and streams tipping their banks forced evacuations, closed roads, and even threatened drinking water. The hospital's 176 patients, including about 30 patients in a nursing...

WASHINGTON, June 12, 2008 – Governors in four of six Midwestern states affected by heavy rains and subsequent flooding called out more than 2,000 National Guard members this week as flood waters forced residents from their homes, left thousands without power and damaged infrastructure. Army Spc. Joseph Stamm, 1st Battalion, 151st Infantry, helps residents load sandbags into their vehicle in Martinsville, Ind. Flash floods tore through the area after more than 10 inches of rain poured over the already saturated land. U.S. Army photo by Spc. William E. Henry, Indiana National Guard  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. The...

INDIANAPOLIS, June 10, 2008 – The Indiana National Guard is preparing to continue a long flood fight across the southern part of the state. Flooding resulted when more than six inches of rain dumped into the Wabash Valley on the evening of June 6 and well into the morning of June 7. Guardsmen and equipment are moving to counties in southwestern Indiana, and officials are working with the county emergency management director to ensure they know the most efficient means of requesting Indiana National Guard support. More than 900 soldiers and airmen from across the state have been activated, and...

WATERLOO — One-half of the Sixth Street railroad bridge over the Cedar River in downtown Waterloo has washed away in the flood waters. Half the bridge remains. We will provide more details as they become available. Also, the city of Cedar Falls has now expanded its area of evacuation.

TERRE HAUTE, Ind., June 9, 2008 – As members of the Air National Guard's 181st Intelligence Wing and the Army National Guard's 519th Combat Sustainment Support Battalion made their way toward Hulman Field here, they had an idea what their mission was going to be during June's drill weekend. Members of the Indiana National Guard’s 181st Intelligence Wing, from Terre Haute, Ind., fill sand bags June 8, 2008, to stem the flow of flood waters that hit the state June 6-7. U.S. Air Force photo by Staff Sgt. Chris Jennings  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. More than six...

Parts of Terre Haute, West Terre Haute being evacuated Staff report The Tribune-Star TERRE HAUTE — Last night's and this morning’s heavy rains and severe thunderstorms have left many Wabash Valley counties in a state of emergency with all roads closed except to emergency traffic. Vigo County has declared a state of emergency due to wide-spread flooding. Numerous roads are flooded throughout the city of Terre Haute and Vigo County. J.D. Kesler, Terre Haute pubic information officer, told The Weather Channel, that there have been more than 100 water rescues in the eastern and southern parts of the city and...

New Orleans (AP) -- The Army Corps of Engineers can be held liable for flood damage caused by a "hurricane highway," a navigation channel that is believed to have funneled Hurricane Katrina's storm surge into the city, a federal judge ruled Friday. The Corps of Engineers had argued that it was immune from liability because the channel is part of New Orleans' flood control system. The law says the federal government cannot be sued if something goes wrong with a flood control project such as a levee, reservoir or dam. Judge Stanwood Duval dismissed that argument, saying the Mississippi River-Gulf...

HARRISBURG -- With a section of a Pittsburgh bridge dropping 8 inches and an Interstate 95 support pillar cracking in Philadelphia, Gov. Ed Rendell is turning up the heat under the Legislature to provide infrastructure repair funds more quickly. Mr. Rendell sent a letter to all 253 legislators yesterday urging quick passage of a $240 million "supplemental debt authorization." His program of borrowing would enable state officials to fast-track repairs on some of the state's 6,000 bridges classified as structurally deficient, along with fixing ailing highways, repairing "state-owned, high-hazard dams" and beginning flood mitigation projects. Also yesterday, Mr. Rendell called...

FENTON, Mo. (AP) — With more than a dozen people killed by floodwaters and rivers still rising, weary Midwesterners on Thursday weighed not just the prospect of a sodden cleanup but the likelihood that their communities could be inundated again. Families in some areas have been forced from their homes multiple times in the past few years, making the routine of filling sandbags and rescuing furniture into a familiar drill. The first day of spring brought much-needed sunshine to some flooded communities, but many swelling rivers were not expected to crest until the weekend in Arkansas, Missouri, southern Illinois, southern...

PIEDMONT, Mo. — President Bush Wednesday evening declared a major disaster in Missouri and ordered Federal aid to supplement state and local recovery efforts in areaa struck by severe storms and flooding. Residents of low-lying towns stacked sandbags or grabbed belongings and evacuated the region after a foot of rain pushed rivers and creeks out of their banks in the nation's midsection. At least 13 deaths had been linked to the weather, and three people were missing.

Excerpt - PIEDMONT, Mo. | Torrential rains that hammered southern Missouri from Springfield to Cape Girardeau caused widespread flooding Tuesday. One man drowned and hundreds of people were left homeless. The flooding closed nearly 200 roads and sent propane tanks and debris spiraling down lowlands turned into raging rivers. Heavy rain began falling Monday and just kept coming. Forecasters said some parts of the state could see 10 inches of rain or more before the storms stop today. An 81-year-old man was found dead around noon Tuesday in Ellington, about 120 miles southwest of St. Louis, said Lt. Nicholas Humphrey,...

FERNLEY, Nev. (AP) - Rescuers are using everything from school buses to helicopters to reach about 3,500 people trapped in a Nevada town because of a levee break. One resident tells CNN that water is 3 to 4 feet deep in parts of Fernley, Nevada, which is east of Reno. Authorities say the frigid water has poured into about 800 homes.

Interstate 5 has closed in the Chehalis/Centralia area because of flooding, Washington Department of Transportation officials said. Transportation officials in Oregon and Washington warn that motorists will not be able to travel I-5 between Portland and Seattle tonight because of the closure, which is from mileposts 68 to 88. Also in southwest Washington, two people died after heavy flooding and high winds downed trees and knocked out power, a Grays Harbor County sheriff's officer said. Sheriff's detective Ed McGowan, the local incident commander for the storm, says two people have been confirmed dead. McGowan says one man died when a...

Massive Wall of Water Expected to Slam East Coast of England Thursday, November 08, 2007 LONDON — Thousands of people along the the eastern coast of England were told to evacuate their homes and move to higher ground Thursday ahead of a potentially devasting 10-foot wall of sea water predicted to slam the island nation Friday morning. More than 10,000 homes and businesses are affected by the order, according to the British Environment Agency, which has issued seven severe flood warnings for people living on the Norfolk and Suffolk coast near Great Yarmouth and Lowestoft. Environment Secretary Hilary Benn warned...

President George W. Bush arrived in the Twin Cities at approximately 4:26 p.m. aboard Air Force One at the International Airport's Air Reserve Station. Following a 15-minute closed-door briefing on recovery efforts related to the I-35W bridge collapse and flash flooding in southeastern Minnesota Bush departed for for a private political fundraiser on behalf of U.S. Sen. Norm Coleman. On hand to meet with Bush at the airport were Gov. Tim Pawlenty and First Lady Mary Pawlenty, Coleman, Sen. Amy Klobuchar, U.S. Reps. Michele Bachmann, John Kline, Keith Ellison, Tim Walz and Betty McCollum and Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak. Following...

Quick Vote: Do you think Global Warming is responsible for the severity of this year's flooding in Southeast Asia?

LONDON — The worst flooding to hit England in at least 60 years has put tens of thousands of people to flight, many leaving their homes, cars and possessions to the ravages of rising water and looters. Forecasters warned yesterday that more rain is on the way. Flash floods that started Friday have inundated thousands of square miles of central and western England, including William Shakespeare's hometown of Stratford-upon-Avon. Other favorite tourist destinations such as Oxford and Windsor are under threat. An estimated 90,000 gallons of water per second is sweeping down the Thames River, so far sparing London but...

11 deaths reported as rescue crews struggle to keep up with emergencies. Rain poured down Thursday for the 16th straight day across Texas and Oklahoma, where flash floods and high winds have already killed 11 people. With little relief expected until the Fourth of July, emergency crews were being flown in from other states to help with rescue efforts.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. - Heavy rain from an already deadly storm system sent the Missouri River and other Midwest waterways over their banks Tuesday, forcing thousands of people to evacuate and bringing warnings that the region could see flooding close to the devastation of 1993. Missouri Gov. Matt Blunt declared a state of emergency and mobilized National Guard troops to help. At least 19 Kansas counties declared local disaster emergencies. River towns across much of Missouri were evacuating low-lying areas Tuesday or seeking help filling and stacking sandbags. "We're scrambling around here," said Steve Mellis, who was volunteering near the...

Very sad story for those interested in New Jersey and Revolutionary War history. Heavy damage to the house and some collection. Follow the link to Bergen County Historical Society's web page for pics.

Scientists have long said the only way to restore Louisiana’s vanishing wetlands is to undo the elaborate levee system that controls the Mississippi River, not with the small projects that have been tried here and there, but with a massive diversion that would send the muddy river flooding wholesale into the state’s sediment-starved marshes. And most of them have long dismissed the idea as impractical, unaffordable and lethal to the region’s economy. Now, they are reconsidering. In fact, when a group of researchers convened last April to consider the fate of the Louisiana coast, their recommendation was unanimous: divert the...

Warmer climes have led to more rain and less snow falling in the Western U.S., a shift that could increase the risk of flooding and affect water supplies, according to a study by the U.S. Geological Survey. Researchers found that warmer weather in the last half century has led to an average decline in snowfall of about 20% in the 11 Western mountain states -- much of it falling instead in the form of rain. During that period, the average temperature in the region has risen by about one degree Celsius. Two years ago, a separate group of scientists at...

With a tropical storm threatening Florida and the one-year anniversary of Katrina approaching, CNN’s August 28 “American Morning” kicked off a weeklong look at “Red Tape and Rubble” in the Gulf Coast. But Ali Velshi’s first report in the series was unbalanced, treating insurance companies as guilty until proven innocent of greed or fraud. “We’re going to be there when you need us,” anchor Soledad O’Brien said is the promise insurance companies extend out to policy holders, “But many Katrina victims think uh, uh, that’s not true,” she complained. O’Brien set the stage for Velshi’s unbalanced report by painting insurance...

EL PASO, Texas -- Almost 1,000 people waited in a shelter Friday to see whether the rain-swollen Rio Grande would puncture an earthen dam and flood portions of downtown, a city spokeswoman said. Water was seeping out of the aging, badly eroded dam across the Mexican border in Ciudad Juarez, and crews spent much of the night pumping out the area, spokeswoman Juliet Lozano said. U.S. engineers were headed to the site Friday, she said. The threat came after more than an inch of rain fell on the area Thursday, most of it in about an hour, and a later...

UP TO 200,000 ORDERED EVACUATED FROM WILKES-BARRE, PENNSYLVANIA, IN NEXT FIVE HOURS- COUNTY OFFICIAL

COASTAL HAZARD MESSAGE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE BALTIMORE MD/WASHINGTON DC 608 PM EDT TUE JUN 27 2006 -snip- Flood Statement FLOOD STATEMENT WVC003-023-027-031-037-065-071-MDC001-021-031-043-VAC013-047-059- 061-107-177-179-510-630-DCC001-280709- FLOOD STATEMENT NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE BALTIMORE MD/WASHINGTON DC 909 PM EDT TUE JUN 27 2006 ...SIGNIFICANT RISES UNDERWAY IN THE POTOMAC AND RAPPAHANNOCK RIVER BASINS... THE POTOMAC RIVER AT HARPERS FERRY AT 6 PM TUESDAY WAS 4.8 FEET AND RISING. FLOOD STAGE IS 18.0 FEET AND RECORD STAGE IS 36.5 FEET. AT 18.0 FEET, WATER BEGINS TO INUNDATE LOW LYING SERVICE ROADS ON THE SHENANDOAH RIVER SIDE OF HISTORIC HARPERS FERRY, DUE TO BACKWATER EFFECTS. THE POTOMAC...

Looks like Houston is a mess and things could get a whole lot worse. How is your part of town looking? Roads? Flooding? We're in Pearland near where 1128 and 518 (Broadway) intersect. Our yard has a small amount of standing water but all looks well for now.

So Mitt Romney goes on national TV yesterday and says he’s “making sure there is no looting of any kind.” Looting? Not around here, Governor, not unless the looters have got some of those airboats like they use in the Everglades. Unfortunately, this is what happens when the governor spends so much of his time out of state, telling jokes at the expense of Massachusetts. He’s starting to believe his own material. Of course that was the only reason Mitt was invited on to begin with. The networks are in the middle of a sweeps month, and they desperately wanted...

By AccuWeather.com News Director Steve Penstone (STATE COLLEGE) - AccuWeather.com is forecasting strong storms will develop over Texas and Oklahoma later today. The three ingredients necessary for the development of severe weather will be over the Lone Star State today. Southeast winds will bring ample amounts of moist air from the Gulf, cold air will move in behind the system as it heads east, and a powerful jet stream is in place to stir everything together. The system will rocket out of the southern Rockies and into the southern Plains, and by late afternoon or this evening thunderstorms will develop...