[Paul R.]

Yeah, I happened to drive through McClure, IL & the nearby area* a couple weeks ago, and while most of the water coming down the Mississippi River has been contained, the River has been at flood stage for so long** that "seep water"*** plus local heavy rains have accumulated behind the levees, causing huge problems.

*I knew IL 3 was closed, but hoped to "cut across" on local roads supposedly still open. No dice: Had to backtrack to "escape".

**Several gauges have been over flood stage over 100 days, and Cairo was over 150 days, a couple(?) days ago, just obliterating the old record of (IIRC) 93 days.

***This "seep" floodwater is quite interesting. In some protected areas that evidently had not seen recent, very heavy rain, the "seep water" had a foot or more of clarity -- maybe 2 ft. at best in a couple spots. Much of it was not the muddy gunk one usually thinks of as flood water.

In any event, the water is now slowly receding, but that NHC track center goes right through that area. Given how spread out "Barry" will likely be at that time, and how moisture laden the atmosphere may be, those poor folks better hope NHC has made a major error...!

[alancarp]

What’s worse (if possible) is that once this thing moves inland, it’s gonna dump billions of gallons more onto the the lower Mississippi basin ... and probably follow the river all the way to Southern Illinois.

So the run-off will continue to stress the levees for at least another week after landfall.