The massive amount of flooding that has devastated parts of America’s mid west region is having an increasingly costly effect on the regions river freight industry.

More than one-hundred barges are reported to be stranded on the upper Mississippi, with those barges prevented from reaching their intended destinations by the devastating natural disaster.

Carrying cargoes of  various items from grain to fertilizer, scrap metal to cement, as well as other products, the freight barges have been forced to lay idle whilst flood waters crest and begin to recede in the region, the waters having already overtopped or broken through many of the rivers levies, flooding great swathes of the upper mid-west.

It remains uncertain as to how long the barges will have to lay idle, however according to the National Weather service, major flooding continues along the Mississippi River in Iowa, Illinois and Missouri.  The National Weather Service estimates that the flooding will continue through next week, as rivers will fall slowly.

Source: National Weather Service and the Arizona Daily Star

This entry was posted on Saturday, June 21st, 2008 at 11:30 pm and is filed under Main. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.