High water makes river dangerous to navigate

Associated Press

BATON ROUGE, La.

Travis Morace has been running boats on the Mississippi for two decades, witnessing all of the mighty river’s many moods. He’s seen it calm and smooth as a newly paved road and endured jarring rides filled with treacherous twists and bumps.

But even experienced river pilots have never seen anything like the roiling current now racing to the Gulf of Mexico. Since spring floods pushed the Mississippi to historic heights, America’s busiest inland waterway has become one of its most challenging to navigate.

The high water brings with it a host of hazards. Debris is everywhere, and the unusually swift current makes it difficult for pilots to go upstream. Good luck stopping if you’re headed downstream. For those who make their living on the water, the river is a respected adversary in the best of times. Now, it just plain frightens them.

On Friday, the Mississippi at Vidalia looked more like a stormy ocean than a river. Whitecaps frothed under the bridge that connects the city to Natchez, Miss., and whirlpools churned across the channel.

In many places, obstacles were hiding just beneath the surface. Some trees in Natchez were nearly submerged. A basketball hoop protruded about 2 feet above the water at a flooded-out court.

The current was filled with flotsam of every sort, including whole trees and long, green ribbons of vegetation. A nearby alligator struggled against the water’s pull, finally finding refuge on the porch of a building partly concealed by the rising water.