...Each river observation is color coordinated to reflect its dry/wet percentile and users can click on each observation point to view data and graphs that display Flow Rate, Percentile, Current Stage, Forecast Stage and Flood Stage. Flood Alert symbols will appear on every river icon whenever a river is in danger of flooding....
Just because there are media announcements about receding water levels doesn't truly indicate 'good news.' A water level can recede if there is breach of a levee elsewhere and with the sustained weather patterns currently over Mid-continent USA, there is every indication this is only the beginning to the tragic reality that has been an agriculturally rich area of the USA. The agriculturally rich soils in this region of the country, historically, didn't get there by mistake.
June 16, 2008
Nauvoo, Illinois
Photographer states :: Statement as of 9:35 PM CDT on June 16, 2008 ... Flood Warning remains in effect until further notice... The Flood Warning continues for the Mississippi River at Keokuk ld19. * Until further notice. *
At 8:00 PM Monday the stage was 26.0 feet... and falling. * Major flooding is occurring and record flooding is forecast. * Recent activity... the river is currently falling due to a levee failure near Gregory Landing. * Flood stage is 16 feet. * Forecast... rise to 28.4 feet
Wednesday evening... then begin falling. * Impact... at 27 feet... water affects residences in Nauvoo and reaches the top of the levee protecting the historical Nauvoo house.
935 PM CDT Mon Jun 16 2008 ... Flood Warning remains in effect until further notice... The Flood Warning continues for the Mississippi River at Burlington. * Until further notice. *
At 9:00 PM Monday the stage was 25.4 feet... and rising. * Record flooding is occurring. * Flood stage is 15 feet. * Forecast... rise to 26.0 feet
Tuesday evening... then begin falling. * Impact... at 26 feet... water reaches the top of the Gulfport town levee.
June 16, 2008
Montrose, Iowa
Photographer states :: I am trying to get back from a riverfront home that I am trying to keep the pumps running at. This was a well traveled road.
Some residents have lost their homes altogether.
Something for everyone, is the slogan of the RNC. To that end McCain has clarified his struggle with 'both sides of his mouth.'
John McCain open to drilling offshore, not in Arctic Refuge (click here with video)
WASHINGTON -- Sen. John McCain's call today to lift a 27-year federal moratorium on new oil and gas drilling along the nation's coastline angered many in the environmental community and put him at odds with several key Republican governors....
Lacking any 'orginal' thinking to his administration and struggling to return legitimacy to the Republican Party after a gloriously failed 8 years and a war misguided and exploitive, Bush is throwing in with McCain which leads me to wonder why he was never his first choice for Vice President. Somehow this is most appropriate to reflect on with an article from Bloomberg.
Any measure such as this is simply a desperate act. The oil that is offshore wouldn't reach the American public, if at all, for at least six to eight years. It is NOT a 'fix' to the current crisis and will serve no purpose to reduce oil prices or availablity today. This is simply politics, bad politics and is why Bush encouraged the falsely inflated prices to Americans in the first place. It is why the national oil reserve has been topped off over and over and over again even in the face of climbing prices. It was the high prices and economic stress this administration and McCain has wanted all along to remove the constraints on offshore oil drilling the American people have demanded for decades.
Just more 'politics without purpose' and not 'policy with results.' Old ideas with age old outcomes. In fact, the people of this planet need to come to terms with the reality that 'fossil fuel' use is toxic to their lives. They need to realize that THEY have to become 'user friendly' if they want their children to have a sustainable lifestyle. It will take a change in the DC Regime in order to achieve it. The infrastructure of the USA has to be 'retooled' including goverment empowerment in transporation and energy. It is unattainable for the private sector to achieve profound change in direction of economics without government investment and laws that enforce it.
I am sure when it comes to realizing the weather patterns of the USA have profoundly changed brought on my Climate Change, there is a cute little political anecdote that can be gleened about Noah, but, the profound reality is that the USA has 'shot itself in the foot' when it comes to its economy and it is time to be accountable to 'the little people' and not to 'big oil.'
Harvesting big oil profits which resulted at the cost of the American ecoonomy including an illegal war into Iraq, seems right and the taxes to them instead of subsidies should provide for much needed restructuring of the American economy and lifestyle. The USA is the world's largest contributor to Greenhouse Gases, it is time to now become the economic innovator and inspiration to a world in need of relief from the Climate Crisis.
McCain is out for a 'short term' political bounce and not the best interest of the people of this country. Somehow in that misconstrued thinking of John McCain, everyone will 'buy into' a conservation effort sustained in ANWR which is now guaranteed to the Polar Bear, while greedily diving into ANY and ALL oil that can be obtained offshore of the USA. That oil is best viewed as a matter of National Security and left for generations to come with an Earth recovered from its tragic outcome at the hand of Republicans.
Bush Will Urge Congress to Lift Offshore Oil Drilling Ban (click here)
By Holly Rosenkrantz
June 18 (Bloomberg) -- President George W. Bush today will urge Congress to lift the ban on offshore oil drilling, a move that is in line with a similar push by Republican presidential candidate John McCain.
``With gasoline now over $4 a gallon, tomorrow he will explicitly call on Congress to pass legislation lifting the congressional ban,'' White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said yesterday. ``He wants to work with states to determine where offshore drilling should occur, and also for the federal government to share revenues with the states.''
Democrats have long opposed efforts by Republicans to end the ban on offshore drilling that has existed in some areas since 1981.
Arizona Senator McCain, 71, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, made a similar call for offshore oil drilling yesterday, even as he promised a break from the energy policies of the Bush administration. Illinois Senator Barack Obama, 46, the presumptive Democratic nominee, said there is no evidence that lifting the ban on oil drilling would provide relief to consumers.
``This is not something that is going to give relief now, and it's not a long-term solution,'' Obama said yesterday....
Officials have declared most of Iowa a disaster zone after it was swamped by severe flooding following days of heavy rain.
