Our Mississippi

is a quarterly 

newsletter of the 

U.S. Army Corps of 

Engineers about its work 

in the Mississippi River 

Basin. It is published in cooperation with other state 

and federal agencies and 

other river interests with 

whom the Corps collaborates and partners toward 

long-term sustainability 

of the economic uses and 

ecological integrity of the 

river system.

Dave Busse has gotten an earful as he’s 

gone out to the public asking questions like these: “How’d we 

do?” and “What can we do better next time?” And he’s open 

to hearing it all— the good, the bad and particularly the 

instructive.

For as one speaker shared at a recent information gathering meeting: “Floods are won before the flood.”

“And that’s what we’re trying to do now,” Busse said. “We’re 

trying to win the next flood.”

As head of a System Performance 

Evaluation Team for the U.S. Army Corps 

of Engineers, one of Busse’s jobs is to 

come up with a grade of sorts— for the 

engineers of the 1920s who conceived and launched the 

Mississippi River and Tributaries Project (MR&T), and for all 

those whose efforts have built upon it since.

By some measures, the grade would be in the A+ range.

“No one died,” Busse notes. “The system prevented more 

than $100 billion in damages, and no levees on the MR&T 

system failed.”

But the evaluation will also capture decisions made during the flood, determine what it’ll take to get critical damages 

fixed and look at what system or operational changes (if any) 

should be made to help the flood fighters of the future— 

much like the detailed plans written decades ago that helped 

flood fighters this year. 

FALL ’11

Laying HE Groundw

Meet the Generals, Pag

Continued on page 2 >>

photo: Courtesy, U.S. Army Co

Coolidge-era planning saved the day in the Great Mississippi Flood of 

2011; modern engineers preparing the flood fight manual of the future.

ABOVE: Early 

levee construction, 

around 1910.
2 ourmississippi.org 3

 “The things you do now put you in a better position to respond to any future 

flood,” says Busse, a hydraulics engineer. “The seeds of the success in 2011 go 

back to the ’20s and ’30s. We’re hoping to provide seeds to help the Corps 

and nation better prepare for future floods on the MR&T or anywhere in the 

United States based on what we learn.”

The Mississippi River and Tributaries Project— one of the world’s largest, 

most comprehensive and successful flood control projects ever— was launched 

in 1928, authorized in a flood control act passed that year, to prevent a repeat 

of what historians say might be the nation’s greatest peacetime calamity outside Hurricane Katrina. In 1927, a great flood snapped levees like dominoes as

it roared toward the Gulf, inundating 16 million acres, driving 500,000 people

into disease-rampant refugee camps, leaving as many as 500 dead.

Humans were realizing they couldn’t out-build the river— they could never 

build walls of earth high enough to keep the river completely restrained. 

Conceived by the Chief of Engineers of the time, Maj. Gen. Edgar Jadwin,

the act and its Mississippi River and Tributaries Project introduced the thenrevolutionary idea of leaving “room for the river,” says Maj. Gen. Michael

Walsh, the current commander of the Corps’ Mississippi Valley Division. Under

the plan, water would be moved laterally as opposed to vertically, through 

floodways used in tandem with levees operated when certain river gauges 

reached a precisely prescribed height, Walsh said.

Parts of the project have been operated over the years, but not until this year 

have all three floodways been needed at once. The Bonnet Carré Spillway has 

been the most-often used floodway, operated 10 times since its construction to 

channel floodwaters from the Mississippi into Lake Pontchartrain. Morganza, 

which sends diversions into the Atchafalaya Basin at up to 600,000 cubic feet 

per second, was opened only twice, in 1973 and 2011. This was also the second 

activation of the Birds Point–New Madrid Floodway in Missouri, a step Walsh 

called “grave” because it would intentionally flood homes and rich farmland in 

the spillway. Even in 1937, the then–Chief of Engineers pleaded to Congress 

for another option, says Charles Camillo, a Corps historian and expert on the 

MR&T system, saying he didn’t find “any plan acceptable that caused him 

to intentionally flood people’s homes.” But then as in 2011, the system was 

operated according to design, leaving Walsh 

confident in the system’s wisdom and worried 

about how the Corps will afford to put it all back 

together.

 “Frankly,” he said. “We are really quite proud 

not a single person lost their life in this whiteknuckle flood.”

But there’s also the next flood to prepare for, 

and that’s where a series of teams were developed under what is being called 

Operation Watershed Recovery. There’s a System Performance Evaluation

Team developing answers to key questions of system performance and recommendations for future studies or improvements. A Damage Assessment Team 

is ranking the most critical repair needs, and an Interagency Task Force is looking at system needs through a regional interagency perspective. At the national

level, the Chief of Engineers has created an external review team that is looking 

holistically at how river systems like the Missouri, Ohio and Mississippi work

together and whether, perhaps, more extensive floodway systems are needed.

Busse’s System Performance Evaluation Team has pulled together the 

Mississippi Valley Division’s leading experts on several system components

as well as outside experts from universities and elsewhere. They’ll look at 

flood protection levees, floodways, reservoirs, communications and more. 

The experts will examine how the system performed this spring, what it 

needs to withstand another flood event, and what changes might make it 

operate better in the future.

One sub-team is running models that show exactly how flood heights would

have changed had a series of reservoirs not been holding back record amounts 

of water. Another is collecting data. What’s been learned in past floods, Busse 

says, is that if you don’t look early for pieces of scrap paper upon which 

decision-makers often scrawl notes, they may be lost to you forever.

How well the Corps collaborated with other flood-fighters and communicated along the way is another key part of the evaluation. One area receiving good

feedback is the extensive use of social media during the flood fight; but while 

many loved finding information on Facebook and Twitter, others missed the 

face-to-face contact they’d grown accustomed to, Busse said.

The team’s aiming for a report within a year. One version will be made into a

reference manual, there to assist future leaders and flood fighters.

“We talk about those big floods that might happen every 50 or 100 or 200 

years,” he said, “But it might also happen next year. We don’t want to complete 

this report, because we may need it next year, or— and this would be the best 

scenario— we won’t need it for a long, long time.” —K.S.

The 5 elements of 

damage assessment

1

Collect physical data 

on the damage.

2

Look at historic data. 

Has damage 

grown progressively 

through time?

3

Look at repair options. 

What is needed so 

it can be floodfought again?

4

Have others 

check the data in 

a district quality 

assurance review.

5

Determine cost of 

bringing levee (or 

other structure) up to 

an acceptable level.

ABOVE, from l

Gates open on the Bonnet 

Carré Spillway; levee explosion 

at Birds Point–New Madrid; 

Morganza Floodway opened 

for only the second time in its 

history, in May 2011.

Parts of the project have been operated over 

the years, but never until this year have all 

three floodways been needed at once. 

Levee Triag

Safety team ranks damage, begins repai

The Great Flood of 2011 came so fast and forcefully that while there were no levee (or human) casualti

there’s still a need for some infrastructure triage. 

The force of the waters caused damage to the Mississippi River 

and Tributary System levees, most evident in earth slides, seeps 

and boils— in some cases the size of a pencil, in others a swimming pool. Some seeps are expected and treated as routine. But 

when you see water flowing out, carrying pieces of the levee with 

it, you have a potentially dangerous situation that needs to be 

carefully assessed by levee safety experts, notes Scott Whitney, a 

leader of the Corps of Engineers’ Operation Watershed Recovery.

“Two of the biggest questions we are asking are ‘Can we 

flood-fight it again?’ and ‘What are the life/safety and economic 

risks and consequences of failure?’” The answers to these key 

questions are being used to differentiate between critical and 

non-critical repairs.”

Teams of engineers, levee operators and other experts have 

walked every levee (some 900 miles worth) throughout the 

Mississippi River and Tributaries system, closely inspecting 

problems evident during the flood, and others just appearing as 

flood waters fully subside. They’re also looking at dredging needs 

for impassable channels, other structures and tributary needs.

By early August, some 93 repair projects with an initial repair 

cost of $778 million were identified as potentially critical. Twelve 

were determined to be “Class 1” or at high risk for loss of life, 43 

were “Class 2” (significant potential for loss of life and economic 

damage), and the remaining 38 were classified as “Class 3” or 

with high impact to navigation and/or indirect potential for loss 

of life. The more comprehensive damage assessment phase will 

continue through fall and will likely add several hundred more 

sites to the list.

As of mid-September, the top 10 construction projects 

were getting launched with $75 million pulled from hundreds of Corps projects across the nation. Through just this 

self-funding strategy, however, the entire repair and recovery 

process would take more than a decade, Whitney said. 

The list includes projects with the scariest finds, many of 

them centered around Cairo, Ill., where the critical mass of

initial construction priorities is. Huge sand boils have seriously weakened levees there. 

The activation of the Birds Point–New Madrid Floodway for 

only the second time in history has left more than 130,000 acres 

of farmland and hundreds of families trying to rebuild their lives 

and livelihoods with little protection from even a relatively minor 

flood event. Initial repair work to clear the floodway of explosives and restore some protection is the top restoration priority,

closely followed by the other Cairo-area levee problems, says 

Kent Parrish, head of the division’s post-flood levee safety team.

But other areas’ levees suffered, too, leaving flood fighters worrying that in even a small flood they might not hold the waters back. 

In one place within the Corps’ Memphis District, the river cut its

way through three quarters of a bend, shortening the river by nearly 

nine miles, destabilizing the navigation channel and threatening 

destruction of the $54 million in channel improvements already 

invested over the years in this section of the river. In a case called

Buck Chute near Vicksburg, Miss., boils and seepage discovered in

a 2010 flood were so worrisome that crews patched together an 

emergency fix as the flood crest made its way down river. Plans for a 

permanent fix made the phase 1 list of critical sites.

 “We’re assessing everything and putting it into a bigger 

report,” Parrish said. “We have a levee team looking at what we 

need to do immediately, what we need to fix in the next couple 

of years, and what remains to get to what Congress told us to 

protect the system to: the project design flood.”

According to Maj. Gen. Michael Walsh, initial repairs will

run around $1 billion, full restoration efforts another 

$1 billion, not including recommendations (if forthcoming) 

for system changes. Parrish and others hope funding for the 

whole fix list isn’t too long in coming. 

 “We know where the hot spots are, and we’ll be watching 

them like hawks and taking remedial measures if needed, like 

we did this time,” he said. “But we breathe a lot easier when 

we can fix some of them. Problems from the past got worse in 

2011, and it’s not going to get better without doing something.” 

—K.S.

TOP TEN PROJECTS

•	 Birds Point–New Madrid 

Floodway (Mo.): 

$18.5 million

•	 Cache-Cairo (Ill.): 

$26.1 million

•	 City of Cairo (Ill.): $3 million

•	 Cairo Parcel 5 (Ill.): 

$7 million

•	 Above Cairo Parcel 2A Relief 

Wells (Ill.): $1.5 million

•	 Above Cairo Parcel 2 Slurry 

Trench (Ill.): $5.5 million

•	 Buck Chute (Miss.): 

$2.64 million

•	 Abermarle Slide (Miss.): 

$1 million

•	 Duncan Point (La.): 

$8.85 million

•	 Baton Rouge Front (La.): 

$1.762 million

A crew monitors a massive, pond-sized sand boil in Cairo, Ill., 

in the midst of the Great Flood of 2011.

EVENT

1844

Largest Upper 

Mississippi flood on 

record, at the time

EVENT

1849, 1850

Repeated flooding 

along Mississippi 

Valle

RESPONSE

1849

Swamp Act 

represents first steps 

toward federalizing 

flood control

EVENT

1861–1865

Civil War leaves 

levees in disrepair

RESPONSE

1879

Mississippi River 

Commission (MRC) 

created

EVENT

1927

Great Flood of 1927:

27,000 square miles 

of lower river flooded, 

500 dead, $1 billion 

economic losses 

equaled a third 

of federal budget at 

the time

RESPONSE

1928

Flood Control Act 

implements Jadwin 

Plan/adds floodways 

to supplement levees

EVENT

1937

Flood: 365 die, 

$500 million 

in losses; New 

Madrid Floodway 

opened for 

first time 

RESPONSE

1938

Flood Control 

Act adds 

reservoir 

construction 

and headwaters 

projects

EVENT

1965

One of worst

Upper Mississippi 

floods: 19 dead

RESPONSE

1969

National flood 

insurance provides 

incentives for 

non-structural 

flood control

EVENT

1973

River towns hit hard 

in huge Lower River 

flood; Morganza 

Spillway opened 

for first time, metro 

areas protected

EVENT

1993

Upper River flood: 

worst disaster since 

1927; more than 

1,000 levees fail

RESPONSE

1999

Congress approves 

the Upper Mississippi 

River Comprehensive 

Plan; includes nonstructural approach 

to flood control

EVENT

2008

Huge Midwestern 

flood; two dozen 

people killed, 148 

injured, 40,000 

evacuated

EVENT

2011

Great Flood of 2011

flows largest on 

record; all 3 spillways 

open for first time in 

history; no deaths

Levee construction, 1880

Upper River Flood 

in Missouri, 1993

Flood in 

Lake City, 

Minn., 1965

BonnetCarré an Morganza: New Orleans Disrict, Co

Flood History on the Mississippi Rive
4 ourmississippi.org 5

Ancient relics complicate (already 

complicated) levee reconstruction

When hundreds of human bones were unearthed during work to control flooding 

near New Madrid, Mo., this spring, the Mississippi County coroner at first thought a mass 

burial site had somehow been exposed. In fact, as Corps of Engineers officials were figuring out

back at the site, he was on the right track. Explosions needed to activate the Birds Point–New 

Madrid Floodway for the first time in 74 years had turned up— quite literally— an ancient 

Indian burial ground

Hundreds of bone fragments were spread over 61⁄2 acres, later determined to be the remains of 

some 25 people, probably from a small Mississippian village built atop a natural levee, says Dr. Robert Dunn, the tribal liaison for the Corps’ Memphis District. 

The Birds Point site has been in the limelight since Maj. Gen. Michael Walsh, commander of the

Corps’ Mississippi Valley Division, ordered the activation of the floodway on May 2, inundating

130,000 acres of fertile farmland and homes to save lives and property in more heavily populated areas not designed to flood. Making the site safe, and then rebuilding it to a partial level of 

protection, has since been the division’s top priority. 

But the process has been anything but typical.

 “After we activated the floodway, we learned we 

had residual blasting agent on site,” said Dennis Abernathy, a project manager at the site. “All the explosives 

didn’t go off. Some highways and roadways were left 

in very unsafe conditions.”

The explosives were removed from the site, 

desensitized, and placed in holding tanks until 

they could be disposed of. During that process a 

contractor discovered the bones.

Officials believe the prehistoric site had been

covered by river alluvium as far back as 1200 AD. 

A man-made levee was built on top of the original 

natural levee that contained the site in the late 1800s, and after the 1927 flood, the U.S. Army 

Corps of Engineers unknowingly built the existing levee on top of that.

On May 2, the explosive breaching lifted the top seven feet of the levee and let the river rush

in with tremendous force, said Dunn. “It cut a scour hole 20 feet deep. It exposed that prehistori

site and human remains were scattered over a 61⁄2-acre area. It was extremely distressing.

The Mississippi County coroner later released the remains to the State Historic Officer’s senior archaeologist. In June representatives o  the Osage Nation, which had ceded these lan

to the U.S. government by treaty in 1808. Osage Assistant Chief Scott BigHorse led a short

prayer ceremony, and then tribal officials, Corps archaeologists and other Corps staff helped 

gather and move the remains since further flooding and other risks threatened. Plastic tubes of 

explosives were still on the ground; if hit by lightning they would have set off a major explosion 

and further scattered the bones, Dunn said.

The remains are in the temporary custody of the Corps’ St. Louis–based Mandatory Center of 

Expertise for the Curation and Management Archaeological Collections. Following analysis, they’ll 

be returned to the Missouri State Historic Protection Office, which will repatriate the remains to

the tribe with the closest affiliation to the site. Multiple tribes have put in claims. Depending on 

tribal wishes, they’ll be reburied in a keepsafe cemetery or possibly on the original site.

The replacement levee at Birds Point has been realigned so the new construction doesn’t 

cross over the ancient burial site, to prevent future disruptions. 

But that isn’t the end of the story. A shortage of clay, the planned material for the levee replacement top, has required the geoarchaeological investigation of two new so-called “borrow” 

areas just outside the floodway. A Corps survey conducted from the mid-1990s to 2005 found 

75 individual sites and one group site eligible for the National Register of Historic Places. Consequently, the Corps is taking very seriously tribal requests that their ancestral burial grounds 

receive proper care, Dunn said.

The archaeological investigations have not affected the schedule for Operation Make-Safe,

the repairs needed to get the levee back to a height safe enough to protect floodway farmers. 

Crews were able to work on other areas impacted by scour holes, with most work predicted to 

finish in late November. They were temporarily held up in August, though, when they encountered protected interlopers: Interior Least Terns who decided to nest there. —K.S

Might we flood? 

Let’s check the map. . . 

Had floodwaters breached a mainline levee during this 

year’s record Mississippi River flooding, detailed maps 

would have shown what would flood, how quickly and 

in what order— providing emergency crews a literal 

rescue road map. At the same time, daily crest maps 

used National Weather Service forecasts to show 

what would be getting wet, or not, even if all went 

exactly as planned.

The new inundation mapping came from the

nation’s Modeling, Mapping and Consequences 

Production Center in Vicksburg, Miss. The center

regularly does analyses on the impact of a potential 

dam break. This spring, it went into real-time mode,

using its extensive know-how for flood prediction.

While there was a technological learning curve, real 

flooding eventually matched closely what maps were 

predicting, said the center’s Katy Breaux, and became 

a key tool for Corps officials, state emergency managers, utility companies, the Red Cross, nuclear power 

plants and others needing to plan for the worst.

Based on an inundation map prediction, one 

Vicksburg school district prepared to save its school 

by building a levee around it. Maps even showed 

volunteers how high to build the levee, giving them 

a distinct advantage over the waters that did indeed 

come. The building was saved.—K.S

Não há mais enchentes

(No more floods)

A delegation of high-ranking officia

from Brazil toured the northern and southernmost ends of 

the Mississippi River late this summer, looking for ways to 

avoid disasters like that country’s tragic mudslides which, 

in January, killed some 600 people in a mountainous region 

northeast of Rio.

Alexandre Navarro Garcia, Brazil’s Executive Secretary for

the Ministry of National Integration, the agency that promotes

economic and social development and reduction of regional 

inequalities, said Brazil is looking for ways to improve its disaster 

response and prevention efforts. 

Typically, Brazil has invested heavily in disaster response and 

helping with the resulting social events. How to prevent and 

mitigate disaster, however, was not part of the process. “Now,” 

he explained during his New Orleans visit, “we’re saying let’s

reverse the equation and eliminate the damage from disasters, 

with more prevention being part of the equation.” 

The group is the latest of several international delegations 

to express interest in modeling their own countries’ systems 

after the Mississippi River and Tributaries Project, built after a 

disastrous flood in 1927. This year, that system was successful 

enough to stave off even a single death.

Says Charles Shadie, head of water control for the Mississippi 

Valley Division of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers: “We’ve

had a number of groups come and visit since the flooding, at 

least two from China, one from the Mekong River Commission. 

We’ve given them briefings on how the system performed, 

how we used floodways and other features to pass flood flows 

and not just rely on levee systems.”

In Brazil, heavy January rains forced perilous evacuations

of some 5,000 families. That put officials in an uncomfortable 

spotlight as the country prepares to host both upcoming World 

Cup (2014) and Olympic Games (2016) festivities. Corps official

guided the Brazilian delegation, which will visit other countries as 

well, around two main parts of the system. In New Orleans, th

flood protection system centers around pumps, control systems and 

levees. Near Minot, N. Dak., overtopped levees forced thousands 

from their homes along the Souris River. 

“We wanted them to see the vast difference as you take a 

watershed approach,” said Scott Whitney, Regional Flood Risk 

Manager for the Corps’ Mississippi Valley Division, “All the tools

you apply here are not the same tools you apply there.” 

The delegation included officials from the Ministry of National Integration including Brazil’s National Secretary of Civil

Defense (that country’s version of the U.S. Federal Emergency 

Management Agency). Joining them on tours of various flood 

control projects (including the Bonnet Carré Spillway, West 

Closure Complex Pump Station and Inner Harbor Navigation

Canal Surge Barrier) were Joe Threat, Acting Executive Director

of FEMA’s Louisiana Recovery Office, along with New Orlean

District Commander Col. Ed Fleming and representatives of 

local levee districts.

The visiting Brazilian officials said they would be examining 

civil defense and flood prevention systems in countries other 

than the U.S. but were also looking to build on a budding 

partnership with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. —K.S.

From the Project 

Scott Whitney, Regional 

Flood Risk Manager

Mississippi Valley Division,

U.S. Army Corps of Engi

You’re a leader of Operation Watershed Recovery. What is that in a nutshe

It’s basically assessing and repairing the Mississippi River and Tributaries (MR&T) system

damaged during the historic 2011 Flood to ensure it is again able to provide the level of service 

and protection it has provided for the past 80 years. It comprises four carefully integrated

components: damage assessments, a system performance evaluation, an Interagency Recovery

Task Force and repair/restore construction projects. It is important to understand the MR&T is

both a vital navigation artery for world trade and one of the largest and most successful floodcontrol systems in the world. 

What makes this an especially challenging post-flood situation? 

The geographical extent of the damage. There have been 11 or 12 major flood events since the 

MR&T system was put into place in the ’30s. Never have we had this magnitude of damage. 

At the same time, this is not the only natural disaster that our country is trying to rebuild and 

recover from, given recent drought, wildfires, flooding, tornadoes and hurricanes. When combined with the ongoing economic struggles, it is likely the recovery process will span several 

years and leave our citizens, businesses and communities in a condition of prolonged risk. 

What are you finding in the damage assessment process?

Since the day waters started to rise, the Corps and our partners have had boots on the ground 

assessing and documenting flood effects. As floodwaters recede, teams have been deployed to 

inspect, investigate and record damages to project areas. These teams have now largely completed this effort with careful documentation that characterizes the location, nature, extent, 

repair alternatives and preliminary repair cost estimates for hundreds of damaged areas. In

early August, a Phase  prioritization was conducted to rank order the most critical “repair”

areas, and that identified nearly 100 projects with an estimated repair cost of some $800 million. Currently, we are completing a similar ranking of several hundred “restore” sites. That 

additional cost will be in the $1.2 billion range. 

Are bigger system changes being looked at?

We’re evaluating a complex array of possible site-specific and systemic modifications that 

would likely have positive impact on future performance and functionality of many MR&T 

system components. It is still a bit premature to presume which of these will progress given the

ongoing data collection and evaluation process. 

You also help to lead an Interagency Task Force. What is the importance of collaboration 

a project like this?

The MR&T system was established in response to a national catastrophe. Only through states,

agencies and levee boards coming together and speaking with one loud voice on the national 

level were we able to achieve the creation of the MR&T system, and that’s the only way we’ll be 

able to rebuild it. The Corps invited seven states and 10 federal agencies to set priorities and 

plan a comprehensive approach to restoring the flood protection system. All share a responsibility in the recovery efforts, and by pooling resources, talents and expertise, the task force 

can focus on key elements that protect the lives and livelihoods of millions of Americans as we 

prepare for spring floods. 

Is the American public well informed about flood risk and consequences? 

That’s a pretty definitive no, but they’re getting there.  think most people don’t think about a

flood until it’s upon them. Effective flood risk management requires the integration of mitigation planning, preparedness, response and recovery programs and activities into a coordinated 

flood risk management “life-cycle” framework. The Corps flood risk management program is 

focused on ensuring our programs and authorities and those of our federal, state, local and 

tribal partners are coordinated so that our combined actions achieve more effective awareness 

and management of the inherent and preventable flood risks. At the end of the day, Mother 

Nature will grade the success of our collaborative efforts during future flood events. —K.S.

Did you Kno

During the 20th century, floods were the number-one 

natural disaster in the United States in terms of the 

number of lives lost and property damage.

Top: Bulldozers repair one of three damag

sites at the Birds Point–New Madrid levee 

during the site’s “Make Safe” phase. a

Artifacts found during early investigation of 

the New Madrid Floodway.

My Mississip

Lester Goodin, floodway farm

Cape Girardeau, Missou

“For us, the Mississippi River 

is as omnipresent in our 

lives as the sea is to a Fiji 

islander. There’s a profound 

love for the river, and a profound anger at times. 

“My family has farmed in 

the floodway for five generations. I have been farming 

it since 1972— corn, wheat, 

soybeans, milo— and of 

course never expected the 

floodway to be operated. But by golly, it got operated, 

and... wow.

“I was very, very lucky. At my farm, the water got nine 

feet deep, but I was kind of in a backwater so I didn’t get 

the erosion and massive scour that my neighbor a quarter 

of a mile away did. There were places that looked like 

the badlands of South Dakota, and that’s no exaggeration, here on rich, flat land with soil as good as anywhere 

in the world. My father dealt with the 1937 flood, the only 

other time the floodway was operated. Everybody knew 

it could happen again, but it was going to have to be a 

flood of record, which we certainly got by 21/2 feet. 

“When I left for college, the last thing I ever wanted 

to do was farm. I wanted to go out into the world, and I 

was gone for 10 years. I went overseas, went to graduate school, worked for the government in Washington, 

for a newspaper in Memphis but, in 1972, I came home 

at age 28 to farm. I have never since then had a blue 

Monday. When you’re a farmer, you never have existential doubts. It is just manifest that what you’re doing is 

of central importance, feeding people, working with the 

soil, the land. Farming to me has inherent meaning.

“So when the floodway was detonated, sure, that was 

a hard Monday, but I never doubted what I’m doing 

with my life.”
6 ourmississippi.org 7

To the rescue of the river’s ancient fis

As others concentrated on the safety of people lying in the path of Mississippi 

River floodwaters, Dr. Jack Killgore was leading a rescue operation for fish—

specifically the endangered pallid sturgeon.

The worry was a series of spillways opened to relieve pressure on the main 

river levees. When one, the Bonnet Carré, was last opened in 2008, teams rescued 14 endangered pallid sturgeon that had gotten sucked into floodways and 

trapped. By some estimates, another 70 may have been carried into salty Lake 

Pontchartrain by the current and lost. That lake has high salinity, Killgore said, 

and is potentially life threatening for the ancient freshwater fish.

When the spillway was opened this year, he and others from his Corps fish ecology team and the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries were ready.

“As soon as the structure is closed, and water begins to recede, it dries up 

quickly, fish are concentrated, and we’re able to catch them with electrofishing 

gear, gill nets, cast nets,” he said.

His team will make recommendations to the System Performance Evaluation 

Team as to what potential operational changes might increase the sturgeon’s 

chances of survival. Overall, things worked impressively according to plan, with 

more fish rescued than in 2008, Killgore said, although a slower closing of the 

spillway gates could be helpful.

This year, the water dropped back in a day or two, compared with a couple 

of weeks in 2008— which meant more stranded fish, he said. “But we were 

ready. We had training in 2008, you could say.” —K.S.

 When the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers opened the Morganza 

Spillway to give record floodwaters a place to go other than 

into the cities of Baton Rouge and New Orleans, officials

worried about what was in the new path of the rushing 

waters— certainly small towns and wildlife aplenty.

The opening would for only the second time in the floodway’s history flood 

the eastern part of Atchafalaya basin, the nation’s largest swamp, with deer, 

bobcat, beaver, coyote, mink, armadillo and even the endangered Louisiana 

black bear. If they couldn’t offer an ark, they could at least give the creatures

a fighting chance by opening the spillway more slowly than was done in 1973. 

That year the outcome was “less than desired,” said Bo Boehringer, press secretary for the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries, while this year, 

wildlife impacts were minimal.

This time, he said, “It was a more controlled opening (of 25 percent capacity)

so that rising water would alert the wildlife that it was time to move. Biologists 

have told me that for the most part, the wildlife moved out of the flood zone to 

higher ground. When the water receded, they went back home so to speak.”

Wildlife officials did take precautions, preparing for supplemental feeding and 

even relocation of bears, if necessary, plus shutting traffic down near levees to 

reduce stress on fleeing animals. Fred Kimmel, assistant administrator for the 

wildlife division of the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries, said he 

watched the mass exodus of deer hopping through floodwaters, even squeezing 

under fences, to get to higher ground atop the protected levee. But as many as 

30 percent of deer, he estimates, didn’t make it, mainly those in the northern 

reach caught in the middle of the five-mile wide, 20-mile long basin. 

Virtually unaffected by the flood were the tree climbers, including the bears, the

population of most concern initially. Only one adult bear is known to have died: I

climbed atop a railroad track to rest and was hit by a train. Some bears were even 

observed swimming from high ground back into the water, Kimmel said.

The biggest remaining concern involves the fawns. The deer were displaced 

during their critical third trimester, and some babies may have been lost from 

the stress. To help the population more quickly rebound, the state has altered 

the hunting season in the area, reducing the primitive firearm season by seven 

days in November and making other changes. (For the com

chages, see wlf.lo

Snatching the sturgeon

Other lessons learned in previous floods were applied to the rescue of another

endangered species, the pallid sturgeon. The Bonnet Carré Spillway was of 

particular concern for this ancient species of fish, more closely related to the 

shark than any freshwater fish. 

Explains Dr. Jack Killgore, a leader of the Fish Ecology Team at the Corp.’s 

Engineer Research and Development Center in Vicksburg, Miss.: “This

year, the spillway reached a peak discharge of over 300,000 cubic feet per 

second of water that created a huge side channel, sucking the sturgeon in 

with it since the water velocity exceeds their swimming speeds. But crews 

were ready, and preparation enabled them to save, collect, tag and return 20 

pallid sturgeon and 78 shovelnose to the Mississippi River.” (See re

story, Pag

Another species of concern was the dreaded Asian carp, for the fear of 

its further spread into other bodies of water. “One of the legacies of the

2011 flood is these carp getting into places we 

normally wouldn’t find them,” Killgore said. 

“Given the volume of water that went into

Lake Pontchartrain, there’s no telling how 

many carp came in with that water.” He does 

believe, however, that the species is unlikely 

to establish a reproducing population there.

Oysters devastated agai

Not faring well at all were oysters— including 

people who depend upon oyster harvest for 

their livelihood. The prolonged influx of fresh 

water from the Bonnet Carré Spillway, Mississippi and Atchafalaya Rivers was 

too much for many oysters to survive, and that compounded impacts still 

heavily felt from the BP Oil spill, according to officials like Olivia Watkins o

the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries. This year’s situation is 

so dire that both Louisiana and Mississippi have sought disaster declarations 

for their oyster industries (and the blue crab industry in Mississippi), with 

officials estimating 85 percent mortality on the western Mississippi Sound 

commercial reefs.

Though the Mississippi oyster harvest is expected to be closed for dredging, 

there will be a limited season for tongers— oyster fishermen who harvest by 

hand with giant tongs. (See “My Mississ

Testing the water

Experts feared the large volume of freshwater influx from the Bonnet 

Carré might cause similarly devastating effects to recreation and fish in 

brackish Lake Pontchartrain, where water quality monitoring continued 

through late September.

They were happy, however, about what didn’t happen. Unlike after 

previous openings, no toxic mat of blue-green algae appeared,even though 

the hugh amounts of nutrient rich river water entering the lake made it 

seem likely. Some citizens reported what they thought was a bloom, but 

it turned out to be huge swirls of duckweed— not pretty, but not toxic. 

“Nobody can really put their finger on why it didn’t happen,” said Danny 

Wiegand, an environmental engineer with the Corps’ New Orleans District.

“Weather always plays a factor. Maybe Tropical Storm Lee helped dissipate 

any blooms with all of its wind and wave energy.”

Monitoring teams from the U.S. Geological Survey also surveyed for oil and

grease in the Atchafalaya Basin, where spillway waters rushed over hundreds 

of gas and oil wells. Only a few samples showed any detection of hydrocarbons at all and they were at very low concentrations. Likewise, the Department of Environmental Quality found no oil sheen in monitoring fly-overs

Some species of sport fish could potentially benefit from the added nutrients 

carried by the river water, suggests Dr. Barb Kleiss, Science and Technology 

Director with the Corps’ Mississippi Valley Division, noting that the ecosystems

of many of the areas are actually adapted to periodic flows from adjacent rivers. 

Environmental monitoring results and resulting suggestions for future spillway 

operations will be shared with a System Performance Evaluation Team, which is 

looking at continued ways to reduce environmental impacts during flood fights. 

—K.S.

My Mississip

George Storrs, 63, oyster tonger

McHenry, Mississippi

“A tonger, he doesn’t catch 

the oyster with a dredge, 

which is a big mechanical 

device you use with a boat. 

He uses a long stick with a 

pivot and a big head on the 

bottom, and these heads 

have teeth on them. You 

gather up the oysters, close 

the rakes and bring ’em 

up and dump them in the 

boat onto a culling board. 

It’s there so you can go through the oysters, pile them 

up ’til you figure you have a sack or so. You can’t take 

anything under three inches. 

“These days, since that fresh water hit us (from the 

opening of the Bonnet Carré), I think 65–70 percent of 

the tonging reef, of our large oysters, they’re dead. The 

percentage left we could make a little money with. But 

it’s not going to be a glory year. It’s going to be hard, 

hard to make a living. Shame on me for not being a 

stockbroker, but this is what I do.

“It was terrible after the hurricane. We had to replenish 

these reefs. All the areas that got devastated were areas 

we could harvest off of. Areas closed due to water quality 

seemed to be just fine. They let us go into other areas, 

and we loaded thousands of sacks. They broadcast them 

back onto the reefs—dredging reefs and tonging reefs. 

After that, it was pretty good for a couple of years, and 

then there was the big scare with the oil deal.

“I started doing this 36 years ago. I saw these boats 

working out there way back in the early ‘70s and thought, 

‘Shame on me if I’m broke and hungry if I can at least go 

out and go fishing.

“In a good year, I can make $50,000, which is fair. 

If I get $10,000 or $12,000 out of it this year, it’ll be 

a miracle, but I’m going to do it anyway. It’s terrible 

important to me. No -- it’s wonderfully important. I can 

see the sun every morning. Some mornings you can see 

a full moon going down when the sun comes up, and 

that is a fabulous experience. It’s something 99 percent 

of people on this earth don’t get to see.

“If I had to do it all over, I’d still do it, even with years 

like this one.”

In the absence of an ar

Scientists use variety of tools to reduce flooding impacts on wildlife and wate

Aboe, from

leap through floodwaters toward higher ground within the 

Atchafalaya Basin; Duckweed 

covers part of the surface of 

Lake Pontchartrain after an 

influx of Mississippi River 

water; a USGS employee monitors water quality; a Louisiana 

Black Bear has found higher 

ground—in a tree.

Dr. Jack Killgore holds an endangered pallid sturgeon.

Photos, Courtesy, Louisana 
8 ourmississippi.org 9

The GreatFloo

47 deaths

72,000 evacuated homes 

$15,000,000,000 in direct damages

$19,000,000,000 in needed levee repairs

Above: The Gr

Flood of 1993, with the 

Mississippi River out of 

its banks in Alexandria 

City, Missouri.

ARRA funds helped residents keep traveling

As rains pounded Southeast Missouri and filled the Wappapello 

Lake reservoir to its highest level in history, traffic flowed as usual

on nearby Missouri Highway  and U.S. Route 67, upstream of the

dam. Historically impassable when water is high, traffic was able to 

move during a record flood only because of recent improvements 

made through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, according to Cindy Jackson, operations manager for Wappapello Lake

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers received $16 million to raise

Highway 67 to a safer level through the recovery act, initiated by 

President Barack Obama in 2009 to stimulate the economy. In 

this area, it additionally allowed for safe travel from Poplar Bluff to 

St.Louis and beyond as floodwaters rose

“The newly raised lanes opened only weeks before the flood

and, without that work, Highway 67 would have been impassable at 

Greenville and Otter Creek south of Greenville,” Jackson sai

A second ARRA-funded road construction project at the East Fork

of Lost Creek on Highway D-5 allowed people who lived on the othe

side of the creek to get around by bridge—not boat. The entire project, which will raise the height of the highway,

has not been completed, but early improvements kept residents from being trapped by floodwaters.

ARRA projects additionally helped reduce the length of flood recovery. ARRA work at popular Peoples 

Creek Campground (visited by more than 1.5 million people annually) made it easier for campground officials 

to recover following inundation of some 40 feet of water. The campground is designed to flood, but Jackson

said the ARRA-funded improvements helped with drainage, structures and utility work, made recovery quicker 

and reduced impact to campers.—M.M.

The Upper Mississippi River System doesn’t have a uni

flood protection project like the lower river does with the Mississippi River 

and Tributaries Project. At least not yet. 

The foundation is being laid through the Upper Mississippi River Comprehensive Plan. Authorized by Congress in 1999, the plan is being developed 

through a comprehensive, system’s approach requiring collaboration of federal and state agencies, local communities, non-governmental organizations 

and landowners. 

Unlike the MR&T lower river system, the upper river basin project would 

be funded through multiple public and private sources, not just the federal 

government. But it represents a big step forward, participants say, and an 

ambitious undertaking.

The project area covers the entire basin north of the confluence of the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers at Cairo, Ill., a region with a population of 13.4 million. But there’s strong motivation behind it: the Great Flood of 1993, whi

resulted in 47 deaths, the evacuation of 72,000 homes and at a cost of $15 

billion in direct damages, but with another $19 billion in damages prevented 

by existing flood-control features. 

One objective is to raise the height of most levees north of St. Louis, all

through local funds. Other elements of the project are targeting critical transportation infrastructure and the Mississippi River tributaries

“We’re still fine tuning some elements, but our goal is to have a design or 

levee system that’s able to convey a major flood like 1993 through the upper 

valley and not create extensive damage,” said Mike Klingner, vice chair of the 

Upper Mississippi, Illinois and Missouri Rivers Associatio

That group has been working toward a unified system since 1954, when it 

formed following the year’s Flood Control Act, to help oversee aging levees 

built in the 1880s through 1920 by local levee and drainage districts, Klingner said. After most Upper Mississippi River levees failed in 1993, the group 

brought in consultants from the Netherlands— a country well familiar with 

levee systems— to create a concept for unifying flood control, navigation and 

environmental interests, ideas eventually worked into the comprehensive plan.

Congressional authority directs the Corps to make recommendations on 

management plans and actions relating to water resource and related land 

resource problems and opportunities that would reduce systemic flood risks. 

Consideration, says Chuck Spitzack, Corps’ Program Manager for the Upper 

Mississippi River Comprehensive Plan, will be given to structural and nonstructural flood control and floodplain management strategies, continued 

maintenance of the navigation project, management of bank caving and erosion, watershed nutrient and sediment management, habitat management and 

recreation needs. 

The Corps initially investigated the possibility of a federally funded system for 

the Upper Mississippi and Illinois Rivers. While none of the eight examined alternatives met the national economic requirements for a federally constructed project,

the need and interest in a comprehensive approach remains, he said. 

Current efforts include furthering work on a flood risk management plan for 

the Upper Mississippi and Illinois Rivers; investigating the need for protection

of critical transportation infrastructure like roads and bridges; investigating 

reconstruction of existing flood damage reduction projects; and comprehensive 

watershed planning on tributaries of the Mississippi, Spitzack said. The plan 

would work with the MR&T system to ensure no project makes things worse 

for it. Although the focus is on flood risk management, the comprehensive, collaborative approach will integrate management for water quality. 

The first tributary watershed to be studied under the plan is the Iowa-Cedar

Rivers Basin. Spitzack hopes the project, headed by a collaborative Iowa-Cedar

Rivers Basin Interagency Team representing some 20 organizations, can be

a model for other tributaries on integrated water resources management. 

All share many similar challenges such as the fact that by the time water hits 

the flowing river, it’s often already a problem, says Matt Fisher, Eastern Iowa

Project Director for The Nature Conservancy. The Iowa-Cedar project team is

looking for “win-win” situations such as planting new cover crops that could reduce flooding, improve water quality and provide farmers with another income 

source. Urban residents might incorporate more rain gardens and pervious 

pavement in construction projects.

“It’s such a big watershed, it’s a real challenge,” he said. “We have to change

the hearts and minds of thousands of people who make little differences every 

day that can lead to big things.” —K.S.

Is it the Upper River’s tu

for more flood protection?

Incoming commander, Maj. Gen. John Peab

It’s not a bad thing to be remembered as the person who helped keep Asian

carp from the Great Lakes, Maj. Gen. John Peabody says, and he’s confiden

that’ll be the case. (His going-away present, as he leaves command of the 

Corps’ Great Lakes and Ohio River Division for the Mississippi Valley Divisio

was in fact a blown-glass carp). He just hopes that’s not his only legacy.

“The real challenge for the Corps in this region is the deteriorating infrastructure and our inability to maintain it to the standards we need to,” he said.

The Lakes and River Division is particularly heavy in infrastructure; the 

replacement value of its many navigation locks, flood control dams, reservoirs, 

hydropower plants and other features is estimated at $80 billion. 

During his tenure there, he developed a rigorous system for tracking needs—

keeping detailed data on unplanned closures, tracking deterioration trends 

over time and setting resulting priorities—so that in a time of particularly 

limited federal resources, precious funds go where the need is greatest.

Similarly, to optimize efficiency and effectiveness across the region, he 

worked to apply a concept more typically used in military campaign design. 

This included putting certain districts in charge of given specialty areas. So, for 

example, the Huntington District, Huntington, W. Va., will take charge of dam

safety design and review. 

Other successes have been Great Lakes cleanup projects and Asian car

prevention. He was part of the effort that built a solid interagency team unified 

under a single purpose, he says: preventing Asian carp from making its way 

into the Great Lakes and researching/applying many methods to attack carp as

an organism.

As he prepares to move his family to Vicksburg, Miss., he says he’s looking

forward to experiencing the region’s rich culture and history—which includes 

some of history’s most brilliant military campaigns—as well as it’s food and 

recreation, and also to meet his new team.

“If you don’t have balance, this job can eat you up,” he said. “The thing that

gives me great comfort is the fantastic professionals we have throughout the 

Corps. Everywhere you go, they’re wonderful.”

The way the Mississippi Valley Division has built many inter-agency teams is

also impressive, he said. It’s extensive collaboration with other agencies, federal

and NGO, states and local governments on environmental issues, he says, is a

well-developed as anywhere in the Corps.

He knows that one of the top missions for MVD is to gain a clear understanding of the damages from the 2011 flood and to manage limited resources

to repair the damages from the historic flooding.

Finishing the hurricane damage risk reduction system will be another top 

priority, he says, as will Louisiana coastal concerns. As a current member of 

the Mississippi River Commission, he has a strong working knowledge of the 

watershed, and he’s already heard public hearing testimony from some of those 

most affected by the flood.

“Every month and every day of the year is actually a potential flood season,” 

he said. “You can’t take it for granted that you won’t get flooded when it’s not

flood ‘season.’  have a certain sense of urgency about the whole thing. There’s

no question that if we have a similar weather event today as we had in April 

and May, we would have greater impacts to our structures because they already 

are damaged.”

Outgoing commander, Maj. Gen. Michael Wal

Maj. Gen. Michael Walsh thought he’d maybe get to fit in a little rest when

the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers transferred him from Iraqi battlefields four

years ago to a stateside post along a historic stretch of the Mississippi River. 

He’s still waiting.

During his tenure at the Mississippi Valley Division, Gen. Walsh led th

region through five major river floods— including the worst on record, one 

resulting in not a single death or levee break. There was also the two hurricanes 

and the need to complete the largest design-build construction project in the 

country’s history. The price tag for the Hurricane Storm Damage Risk Reduction System for New Orleans alone was $10 billion, roughly twice the division’s

regular annual budget.

He’s now trying to get a massive flood control system put back while a key 

Congressional goal is massive budget reduction.

In the midst of it all, how does a general decompress

“I’d say in Army parlance, you have to take a knee,” he said. “WhenI take 

knee,  go back to the house and read.” Currently in his stack is a biography

of Teddy Roosevelt, two about battles in the Pacific, another— The Gamble— 

about the war in Iraq, several others about the world water crisis— all dogeared, highlighted and underlined. “ThenI get off the knee and keep moving

Water’s an issue he plans to keep moving on. The nation undervalues its 

water resources and infrastructure, particularly in the middle coast, he says, 

whether you’re talking about drinking water, navigation needs, flood control, 

hydropower or the ecosystem, he says.

“I’ve been assigned to many different places, to two combat areas. Getting 

canteen of water in some places is very challenging. At home,  open up the tap.

That’s not the case all over the world.”

One of his achievements at the Mississippi Valley Division has been to mov

forward the thinking of water resources as a system— that done mainly through 

his 200-year vision campaign for the Mississippi River Watershed (the world’s 

third-largest). He envisions a national map with circles around each key watershed, 

newly-formed compacts or commissions each working on the issues inside.

 “Water quality and quantity, power, hydropower, hypoxic zones— those 

are all issues we know are on table and can be resolved if we start working the 

policy issues now and start the science and engineering afterwards.”

While at MVD, he says he moved the division to more regional than district-specific thinking, launching inter-district sharing of resources, bringing together the

best in a given area to work on a project Another success is what he calls the great 

untold story of the “white-knuckle” 2011 flood: that not a single life was lost. 

“A lot of good people were paying attention to details,” he said, “and it 

worked.”

As he moves on to take a high-level post as the Corps’ Deputy Commanding General for Civil and Emergency Operations, he hopes to continue th

discussion, nationally, on system thinking and investment. That would include 

systemic flood control projects, among other issues.

“I was asked at a meeting this week what my thoughts are about my new

job,” he said. “My response was  was too busy working my current job—

Tropical Storm Lee; flood damage, problems in Minot, North Dakota, navigation chokepoints, with three areas of the Mississippi River now closed for 

navigation. It’s been more than enough to keep me going intellectually.

Above: Newly rai

Highway 67, flood-proofed 

through ARRA funds. 

1993 floo: anea b

Meet the 

Generals Maj. Gen. John Peabody

far left, takes command 

of the Corps’ Mississippi 

Valley Division Nov. 10,

when outgoing 

commander, Maj. Gen.

Michael Walsh moves 

to Washington to be 

the Deputy Commander

for Civil and Emergency 

Operations. 
10 ourmississippi.org 11

Catch the Great Bird Migrati

The Riverlands Migratory Bird Sanctuary is a popular autumn stopover 

for birds like white pelicans, great egrets, trumpeter swans, great blue 

herons. And it has just gotten better for nature tourists who want to 

(comfortably) watch the graceful spectacle.

The Audubon Center at Riverlands (301 Riverlands Way, 

MO.) held an October grand opening of its newest center, a focal point for

the group’s extensive research and outreach work on the Mississippi River. 

Architecturally designed to resemble a nest, the center offers watching though 

20-foot glass windows situated to maximize bird sightings in places like Ellis 

Bay, notable for its year-round raft of the impressive white pelican.

Wondering why so many birds call this place home— on a permanent or 

temporary basis? Interactive displays talk about why this spot near the confluence of the Mississippi, Missouri and Illinois Rivers is so important to th

some 350 species who use the Mississippi as a flyway. 

The center also shares a home with 

the National Great Rivers Museum and

its popular tours of the Melvin Price 

Locks and Dam. There, one of the most 

unexpected sights may be a great blue 

heron or white pelican lounging alongside a massive tow.

USA Today has called Riverlands and 

the new center one of the nation’s top 

50 places to watch birds, and it’s never 

better than in autumn, when migration 

season is closely followed by the spectacle of hundreds of bald eagles looking for areas of open water come winter.

Electronic kiosks help visitors identify birds by sight, sound and location, 

and outdoor observation decks and new trails ease the exploration of Riverlands’ 3,700 acres.The eco-friendly center, which has earned silver LEED status, will reuse rainwater from the roof, and its landscaping has been designed 

to draw birds closer for a more intimate birding experience. 

If you go, watch for:

•	 A mix of shorebirds stopping to rest midway from their Canadian breeding 

grounds to winter homes in South America, including the American golden 

plover and various species of sandpiper (mid-October)

•	 The arrival of trumpeter swans, as many as 600 and particularly prevalent in 

Ellis Bay and Teal Pond (early November), and other waterfowl that drift in 

between mid-October and February

•	 The return of the eagles, from December through February. Big Muddy 

Adventures offers a novel viewing vantage point, leading paddling trips in 

partnership with the center through the not-quite-frozen waters in and 

around Riverlands. 2mudd

Fr more information, go

Catch the Great Towboat Migrat

Not as romantic as paddlewheelers nor as zippy as power boats, towboats are such workhorses of the Mississippi River that they don’t geta second look very often.

But Pamela Eyden, author of The Little Tow-Watcher’s Guide to Towboats and 

Barges on the Upper Mississippi, says the more you watch, the more interesting 

they become, and the better connected you’ll be to the river and its issues.

Eyden’s towboat fascination began the first time she stood at a visitor platform and watched a towboat approaching a lock. When the front three barges 

inched forward into the lock chamber, they cleared the lock walls by just two 

feet in what she now dubs “an elephant ballet.”

 She says: “A lot of us do well to steer a car into a garage with that much 

clearance. Whoever was piloting that towboat had come from the open river, 

where the currents are contrary and a stiff wind was blowing, and had pushed 

a 105-foot-wide tow as long as four football fields into a 110-foot-wide lock, 

without bumping a thing.”

A newcomer to a river town, the avid bird watcher started taking a closer 

look, especially when towboats passed at night, searchlights swinging. Soon 

after, the idea of a tow-watching book modeled on bird watching guides was 

born. Tow watching, she found, has a distinct advantage: the boats move a lot 

more slowly than birds and pass with their names boldly printed upon them.

To make your experience more fun, Eyden suggests watching by:

•	 Towboat names, which are often exotic (Lady Potasa, Crimson Glory, Sierra 

Dawn), majestic (Cooperative Vanguard), hopeful (Prosperity) or just odd 

(Fogilphol). Many are named for honored captains.

•	 Company logo, usually a big graphic on the 

smokestack, easily identifiable. Just a few decades ago there were lots of small shipping companies, each with a few towboats that have since 

been absorbed into big companies. All towboats 

on the river are licensed to U.S. companies; 

you won’t find a Liberian flag on a Mississippi 

River towboat.

•	 Decks. If a towboat has three decks, the pilot

house will be at the top, with captain’s quarters nearby. 

Some of the crew will be housed on the second deck. 

The galley (kitchen) is on the main deck, along with the 

dining room and lounge. Most crew work six hours on, 

six hours off, around the clock, seven days a week.

•	 Cargo. What type of barges is the towboat pushing? 

If they’re covered, box-like barges they may be loaded

with corn, soybeans, coal or salt. Low-slung tanker 

barges may be carrying anhydrous ammonia or petroleum products. Are they riding high in the water or low? 

High-riding barges are probably empty and often catch 

the wind, making them harder to maneuver. —K.S. & P.E.

Complete the map and create a legend

1. Highlight the Mississippi River in blue and then label it on your 

map. Add a blue dot where the Mississippi River begins. Start 

your map legend by adding a blue line and labeling it “Mississippi River.”

2. Label the states along the Mississippi River on your map

3. Using a different color for each river, highlight and label the 

major tributaries of the Mississippi River and add them to your 

legend.

4. Label the major cities located at the confluences on your map

5. Which major tributary of the Mississippi River is closest to 

your home?

6. What is the importance of tributaries in terms of 

migration of people, wildlife, and goods?

_____________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________

Reprinted from Our Mississippi: 

Educational Activities about the 

Upper Mississippi River for Grades 5–6. 

Teachers may order booklets and 

CDs with printable activity sheets by 

visiting OurMississippi.org.

Our Mississippi K

Our Mississippi T

The Little 

Tow-Watcher’s 

Guide to Towboats and Barges 

on the Upper 

Mississippi is 

available at river 

bookstores or bigrivermagazine.com. The 

best close-up views 

are from observation 

platforms along many 

river dams. To see 

what’s headed your 

way, check: www2.

mvr.usace.army.mil/

omni/webrpts/omni_

vl/river_lock.cfm.

Riverlands Migratory Bird Sanctuary

My Mississip

Suzy Heck, 64, founder of Heckhaven Wildlife Rehabilitation Center in Lake Charles, L

When they opened the spillways, the rising waters threatened the breeding ground of ospreys. Ospreys are raptors, like 

eagles, that feed mainly on fish, and nest in the very tops of cypress trees. The water was so close that alligators could 

swim by and snatch the babies or the eggs for lunch. So a few people from state and federal wildlife agencies, as well 

as some volunteers, went out in boats in late May to gather what they could from six nests on Cow Island (about 

40 miles southwest of Baton Rouge). They brought me three eggs and 13 baby osprey, some only a day old. Those 

babies are ugly! Long necks, no feathers— they look like dinosaurs.

Unfortunately, the eggs didn’t make it, and we lost the four weakest babies. But we fed the others ground-up 

fish with tweezers, then moved them outdoors with Phoenix, our resident osprey, who helped us raise those babies, 

teaching them how to tear up fish and how to flap their wings to fly.

By July and August, we were able to release back to Cow Island eight of the osprey, hoping their parents take them 

back to teach them how to dive from the sky for fish. One injured a wing on the drive over, so we’ll keep him until spring. 

Saving nine osprey may not sound like much, but every animal has a purpose and a place in our world. —S.A.
Send story ideas to editor@ourmississippi.org

PRSRT STD

U.S. Posta

PAI

Greenville

permit no.

News Briefs

From swamp animals to Po-Boy

Nobody throws a party like New Orleans. Where else 

would you find a month of festivals honoring 

Louisiana swamp animals, William Faulkner and th

Po-Boy? The Swamp Festival’s held annually a

Uptown’s Audubon Zoo, where visitors can learn 

Cajun dance moves, eat gumbo and commune with 

creatures from the swamp— all at the same place 

(auduboninstitute.org). A literary feast 

9–13, with the annual “Words and Music: A Literary

Feast in New Orleans” event headquartered at

Faulkner House Books, whose owners also head the

Pirate’s Alley Faulkner Society. The festival features writing seminars and competitions, readings, live concerts

more (wordsandmusic.org). Top the m

the Po-Boy Preservation Festival, where you’ll learn

the history of the iconic sandwich— and find samples 

from more than 40 restaurants (poboyfest.co

Cause for celebration: Model program restores 100,000th acre

The Upper Mississippi River Restoration–Environmental Management Program

celebrated its 25th anniversary— and 100,000 acres of restored river ecosystem— on 

Sept. 23 at a Rock Island, Ill., event attended by Jo-Ellen Darcy, Assistant Secretary of the Army for Civil Works. The program was authorized as part of the Wate

Resources Development Act of 1986, in which Congress recognized the Upper

Mississippi River as both a “nationally significant ecosystem and nationally significant commercial navigation system.” It was the first national program to combine 

ecosystem restoration with scientific monitoring and research efforts on a large 

river system and has led to many improvements in river health and system understanding. EMP works across five states— Iowa, Illinois, Wisconsin, Minnesota and 

Missouri— and as a collaboration between multiple agencies. —H.M. 

For more: mvr

Leave only footprints. . .

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers

is partnering with the Leave No

Trace Center for Outdoor Ethics,

a non-profit organization formed 

to promote proper use of public 

lands while minimizing negative 

impacts. One of the organization’s 

training workshops was recently 

held at Hickory Ridge Wilderness Campground, a 

popular Corps camping area at Iowa’s largest lake, 

Lake Red Rock. This hike-in, paddle-in rec area i

best known for its oak-hickory forest and primitive 

accommodations. (For more

Ranger Amy Schmitt attended the training on sustainable use of public lands. Among other things, the 

center suggests visitors to public lands:

• Plan ahead and prepare. Repackage food to minimize waste and stay in small groups when possible.

• Travel and camp on durable surfaces, using existing

trails and campsites. Keep campsites small and at 

least 200 feet from lakes and streams.

• Pack waste (including toilet paper) in and out and use 

small amounts of biodegradable soap for dish washing.

• Leave what’s found. Don’t touch cultural or historic artifacts or even natural objects like rocks an

plants, and avoid transporting non-native species.

• Use a lightweight stove for cooking and a candle 

lantern for light. Fires, if used, should be kept small

and burned down to ash.

• Respect wildlife and other visitors, observing wildlife 

from a distance. Never feed animals. Let nature’s

sounds (not loud voices or noises) prevail.—K.S. kim 

Contributors this issue: 

Editor/Lead Wr

Kim Schneider 

Designer

Diane Kolak

Contributing Write

Susan Ager

Hilary Markin

Mary Markos

This newsletter is a quarterly update of ongoing efforts in the Upper Mississippi River Basin and does not 

necessarily reflect the views of the U.S. Army.

Mailing list changes:

U.S.A.C.E. regional outreach speci

Marsha Dolan, Marsha.G.Dolan@usace.army.mil

To read online:

ourmississippi.or

Click “Subscribe here” to subscribe via email.

• Kevin Bluhm, St. Paul, 651-290-5247

• Kristin Kosterman, St. Paul, 

651-290-5737

• Angela Freyermuth, Rock Island, 

309-794-5341

• Hilary Markin, Rock Island, 

309-794-5730

• Laurie Farmer, St. Louis, 

314-331-8479

• Kimberly Rea, West Alton, 

636-899-0050

• Bret Walters, Memphis, 901-544-0777

• Gloria Piazza, Vicksburg, 

601-631-7691

• Ben Robinson, Vicksburg, 

601-631-5682

• Rachel Rodi, New Orleans, 

504-862-2587

Questions or comments:

U.S.A.C.E. regional outreach specia