LOW WATER

I drove down onto the levee by the Mississippi to get a closer view of what's going on. During busier periods, particularly summer, the levee is used for parking. You can just see the faint yellow stripes on the cobblestones. It's not unusual to see the water getting close to the spaces painted at bottom center. If Old Man River is really rolling it can cover the paved path at left center or even go over the cement wall above that and over the street.

In an hour's shooting I saw one barge go by. My last office overlooked the river and a tow would pass in both directions every few minutes. As a commentator on FB noted yesterday, this is causing great difficultly for farmers who can't get their grain to port.               

THE MISSISSIPPI IS RUNNING DRY

This is the old levee, built in the 19th Century, that connects the Mississippi River to the central city. It's hard to get scale from this picture, but half to two-thirds of what you see here is normally under water. When the river is really full, it runs up to the street you can just see at the left center. The current level is the lowest in more that 40 years due to drought up and down the watershed. Barges, the commercial life of the river, have to run with light loads and shorter groups in the diminished central channel. There are areas that are restricted to one way traffic on alternating days.

I hope to drive down into the levee today for some closer shots. And I hope today doesn't approach a low water mark for our democracy.             

CDP Theme Day / Thursday Arch Series

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It's monthly theme day at City Daily Photo and November's topic is the water's edge. I dislike taking theme day literally and may post something off kilter (this, for example). It crossed my mind to take a picture for today of a rubber ducky floating on the edge of my filled-up kitchen sink (which happens to be black) with some prop beside it. Maybe a broken Perrier bottle. But I would have had to shop for a rubber ducky and I'm bombed at work this week so there's no way that was getting done.

So, a compromise. The obvious water's edge around here is the bank of the Mississippi River, the fluid that created our city. The river level is really, really low in this shot, taken last Sunday. The POV is where the great cobblestone levee starts to disintegrate into the stream.

Lewis and Clark Dry Off

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Just how low is the Mississippi? Let's get a measuring gauge. This is the iconic statue of Lewis and Clark landing at St. Louis after their voyage of discovery to Oregon and back in 1804 - 1806. The first two pictures were taken on Sunday. Then going, going, gone. Those shots are from the floods of 2010 and 2008. That's a lot of muddy water.

Apologies in advance: this may be a light week on comments. Heavy week at work and have to organize my gear and pack for my week at the Maine Media Workshops, heaven on earth for photographers. I'll document it as I go along.

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Low Water

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The center of the U.S. is drier than Jame Bond's martini. Later this summer the water level in the Mississippi might be the lowest since records have been kept. It's not a problem downtown, where these photos were taken, but there are now sand bars in the river north and south of here that interfere with barge navigation.

It's not unusual to have room for three or four cars across to park on the stone levee. Now the water is past the level where the levee starts to disintegrate because it's so seldom exposed. When the river rises, everything you can see in the top picture is covered, and then some. 

Note the shadow of the Arch in the top photo. Oh, and pray for rain.

Late Theme Day Pic: Cobblestones

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I did not do theme day last Sunday. The topic didn't appeal to me. But, since the portal was vandalized and down for a long time, the authorities extended the time for submissions by two weeks. Then it hit me: there was something obvious here, something I've shot over and over - the cobblestone levee downtown leading into the Mississippi. D'OH! as Homer Simpson says when he slaps himself in the head for his own stupidity. So here we are.

There's a page for these images on the portal now. Click here to view thumbnails for all participants.

Apologies for not posting any comments yesterday. My lame excuse: I worked most of the day, although we let the staff leave early for Good Friday. Went out shooting for a while downtown in the late afternoon and zipped home for dinner. Then my wife and I went the Repertory Theater of St. Louis for a production of Shakespeare's The Comedy of Errors. Considering what I do for a living, it just seemed so appropriate.