Saturday, May 21, 2011

Mississippi Mud and Harlem.

The State of Mississippi is a mess after a series of disasters.  Harlem NY, you better watch out, you could be next.  Or are all the refugees heading this way?
The Vicksburg, Mississippi flood crest today

may be about 57.1 ft, a little lower than feared, but still a

record, or near-record. In the state of Mississippi, there are

4,800 people displaced, including about 2,000 in Vicksburg. Some

are on cots in shelters, some in trailers in parking lots. In

Tunica, at the lot at the Tunica Arena and Exposition Center,

there is a displacement shelter. The number of displaced will go

up to 6,000 at least, in this one state, says Mississippi's

Emergency Management Agency.

One fatality so far, a drowning in Vicksburg.

The Coast Guard is trying to allow some barge transit. Barge

traffic was closed yesterday along the stretch of the Mississippi

north of Louisiana, but it is opened today. The wakes from the

barge tows pressure the levees, already threatened by prolonged

floodwater pressure.

HALF THE USA GRAIN EXPORTS transit the Mississippi. Under

the decrepit economy, there is no alternative transportation. The

trains have been so widely taken down. And also, the cartel

grain- controllers have centralized everything to the extreme,

e.g., in New Orleans elevators and depots.

THE STATE OF MISSISSIPPI is being obliterated by the

quadruple-whammy of tornadoes (including a super cell) in April;

last Summer's BP oil damage to coastal activity; before that,

Katrina's wipe-out of the coast (destruction like the Japanese

tsunami, said Mike Parker); and now the flooding.

The state budget crisis--as in all states--has come on top

of the fact that Mississippi's state workforce already ranks 50th

in the nation for low pay, and was being cut back in numbers over

the past couple years. (Details available). Now state revenue

will be barely anything at all.

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