Business Blog

Recent sustained rains and melting snow across the Mississippi Valley will ensure continuing navigation on the Mississippi River through mid-February, even if no additional rain falls between now and Feb. 15, the Army Corps of Engineers says. The period from Jan. 9-13 saw three-eighths inches of rain, with10+ inches locally, over the Ohio River Valley [...]

The Army Corps of Engineers has begun reducing the flow from a Missouri River reservoir, a move expected to worsen low water conditions on the Mississippi River and potentially halt barge traffic at St. Louis within weeks. Monique Farmer of the corps office in Omaha, Neb., confirmed Friday that reduction of outflow from the Gavins [...]

Rain in the drought-stricken Ohio Valley is the only remedy at the moment for falling water levels on the Mississippi River that this week is limiting north-and-south bound barge traffic to alternating12-hour schedules, says the head of a Greenville grain shipping cooperative. Steve Nail, president & CEO of the Farmers Grain Terminal, said Thursday a [...]

At the busy New Orleans Riverwalk, tourists take in the size and scope of the Mississippi River as immense ships travel one of the world’s busiest ports. Naval and Coast Guard ships navigate past tows and tugs. Blue-water and brown-water crews eye each other cautiously, and an old steamboat is visible in the distance. So [...]