Hurricanes add to shipping woes Too much water on one end of Mississippi River, not enough at the other

摘要

As the month of August wound down, transportation experts were worried about moving the upcoming U.S. harvest. Prolonged drought in some regions of the Mississippi River valley and its tributaries had resulted in low water levels. Would barges loaded with corn and soybeans be able to navigate the shallow water? Then on August 29 Hurricane Katrina roared through the U.S. states of Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama, leaving behind a path of destruction that covered 90,000 square miles (233,099 square kilometers). In New Orleans, winds drove the Mississippi River backward for nearly 48 hours. The hurricane's rain and huge storm surges resulted in levee breaches along Lake Ponchartrain that caused the city to flood, with water 20 feet (6 meters) deep in some areas.