The Mighty Mo

This post is going to be about the Missouri River.  Aka:  The Mighty Mo.  Bear with me, it's worth some attention and I promise I'll try to make this as interesting as possible.   Plus, if you like vegetables, this is going to affect you.

The reason I wanna bring your attention to this?  It's flooding.  And, I kinda feel like America's flood attention span has been used up on the Mississippi flood.  Plus, every time that I've chatted to my Grandparents, it's all they can talk about.  I'll make my case below:



Let's start out with a quick geography reminder. The Missouri river sets the state lines between Nebraska and Iowa as well as part of Kansas and Missouri.  Then it cuts across Missouri and spills into the Mississippi.  See below:


image Cool map, right?

This general area, btw, is where many of my life's memories are set.  I moved away from it a mere five years ago.

And, since I'm biased, I'm going to focus on the area of the Missouri River where it passes by the town where my grandparents have lived for almost all of their 75+ years of life:  Nebraska City, NE.

image  Edited by me.

What has everyone in Nebraska City concerned?  Well, Highway 2 is the lifeline of Nebraska City and Iowa officials just closed it on their side.  And, since I said I would try to keep this interesting for you, here are reasons why I think this is worth paying attention to:

1. All Missouri River bridges between Plattsmouth, NE and St. Joseph Missouri are now closed.  Check it out:

First image edited by me. 

Now, that's about 116 miles where people on the East of the river can't head West w/o going pretty far North or South first.  And, I know on that map, it doesn't seem that far.  But keep in mind that the states out west are pretty darn big.  So, if you need perspective about what 116 miles means:  it's only about 90 miles from NYC to Philadelphia.  Or, if you're in Europe, it's about 131 miles from Brussels to Amsterdam.

2. Here are a couple farms near Nebraska City: 


image


image


In this photo, you see the Missouri River on the top right.  And, on the bottom left is farmland.  And, like I said, if you like vegetables, this affects you.  Crops just don't come back from floods like this. Just imagine what this will do to the price of corn.

3. Grandpa says he hasn't seen flooding like this since 1952.  Grandpa isn't technically a scientific resource.  But, still worth listening to.

4.  The Cooper Nuclear Station is built right near the Missouri River.  Now, I'm not an alarmist.  I'm sure nothing will come of this but I find it just worth noting.  And, for visual interest, here's that same plant from the flood of 1993:

image and interesting commentary on this plant



So, there it is.  Keep an eye out for news about this area.  And, if you feel moved to donate or otherwise help out, check out the United Way or the Red Cross.