I hope nobody thought I was being flippant when I mentioned the rising Mississippi River in my post on Friday. At the time I wrote that, I didn't realize the scope of the flooding higher up in the watershed. Right now some communities on the upper Mississippi, the Missouri, the Illinois, the Wabash, and some smaller tributaries are enduring a soggy mess as a result of the heavy rains that moved through the Midwest last week.
At the moment the lower Mississippi, whose riverbed can accommodate a much larger volume of water, does not face any major problems. At Memphis the river is expected to crest around 32.5 feet, shy of the official flood stage of 34 feet. At 32.5 feet a couple of low-lying settlements begin to see a little floodwater, but for them it's just an annual nuisance, sort of like snow is for denizens of the Minnesota prairie. More than 99.9% of the Mid South population will have no idea the river is doing anything unusual.
Down at Vicksburg the current forecast for this Saturday is a level of 38 feet on their gauge. I expect a low-lying community or two will feel the impact, but the city of Vicksburg, most of which is high above river level, will be fine. For racing purposes, the level will seem nice after last year's 19.2 foot reading, at which it took me over 140 minutes to slog to the finish line. Two years ago, when the level was 36.4 feet, I set the course record of one hour, 56 minutes, 34 seconds.
Whether I'll have that kind of performance this year remains to be seen. I have been feeling good in the boat lately, but in general I haven't been giving my undivided attention to training this year. In any case, I'd be remiss not to note that while we canoe and kayak racers generally love lots of water, it's not a welcome sight for everybody.
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