Millions of acres of farmland flooded; Louisiana braces for onslaught
(CNN) - Across the South and lower Midwest, floodwaters have covered about 3 million acres of farmland, eroding for many farmers what could have been a profitable year for corn, wheat, rice and cotton, officials said Thursday.
In Arkansas, the Farm Bureau estimated that damage to the state's agriculture could top more than $500 million as more than 1 million acres of cropland are under water.
"It's in about 10 feet of water," Dyersburg, Tennessee, farmer Jimmy Moody said of his 440 acres of winter wheat, which was to be harvested in the coming month.
Other farmers in Mississippi, Missouri, Tennessee and Arkansas rushed to salvage what wheat they could ahead of the rising water. As for corn, farmers who were able to get into the fields during a soggy planting season in late March and April are seeing their crops in some cases under several feet of water.
Farms near and on the Mississippi River are no strangers to flooding, but the 2011 flood is definitely one for the record books.
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Post by: CNN Wire Staff Filed under: 360° Radar • 360º Follow • Weather |
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I have been following the coverage of the flooding along the Mississippi on several news channels. All of you talk about the effects of the flooding but you are missing one of the major issues which is causing it. i live in N.W. Iowa close to the Missouri river and even though it has been a dry spring for us, I have never seen the river higher then it is now. Desoto Bend NWR and Wilson Island state park north of Omaha, NE. are both flooded do to the river being so high. Once again the corps of engineers has mismanaged the flood control resivoirs in both South an North Dakota. They keep the resivoirs high for recreation then don't now what to do with all the runoff from the snow melt.. Surely this is contributing to the flooding along the Mississippi.