Mississippi FloodsOne of the largest floods on the Mississippi River occurred in the summer of 1993.* The Mississippi River in St. Louis, Missouri was overflowing of flood level for 144 days between April 1 and September 30. , 1993.* About 3 billion cubic yards of water overflowed the river channel into the floodplain below St. Louis.* All major rivers in the Midwest were flooded, including the Mississippi Rivers , Missouri, Kansas, Illinois, Des Moines and Wisconsin.* Seventeen thousand square miles of land were covered by floodwaters in a region covering all or parts of nine states (North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, Missouri, Iowa, Wisconsin, Minnesota and Illinois). [IMAGE] The Mississippi River Basin consisted of two parts: the Upper Basin and the Lower Basin. These two areas are located on the map above, but flooding was limited to the upper Mississippi as the river channel widens significantly south of Thebes and the lower Mississippi received a lower than average inflow from tributaries . The flooding was caused by a weather system coming from the Gulf. from Mexico. This front is shown in this diagram.[IMAGE]The effects of the flooding were:It was great for farmers in the Mississippi floodplain. The floodwaters made the soils rich and fertile again. However, there were a whole host of problems. In the short term, agricultural production fell by up to 10%, a quarter of a million people were left without drinking water, and 25,000 were evacuated. The flooding also had economic effects as the river could not be used by ships. Power plants that used the canal to transport coal therefore had to draw on their reserves, and isolated buildings in Illinois and Iowa were left without electricity. |The transportation problem cost nearly a million dollars per day and lasted 2 months.Flood prevention================