Rivers and Farms

My grandparents operate a 426 acre farm along the Mississippi River north of the town of Quincy. I've loved going there and my earliest and fondest memories are at the farm visiting Annie and Duke (grandparents). For someone who likes to build things and see how things work, farms are great. The machine shop is full of welders, lathes, machinery, large engines in various states of disassembly. Tractors and interesting work abounds.

Uniquely Joe and I would like access to a farm for a variety of reasons. My grandfather tells a story about a time an ultralight pilot landed in one of his fields. After Duke welded a strut affiliated with the planes landing gear, the guy took off again. UAV research would be pretty much unobstructed.

Here is a Google Maps view of the farm.

In 1993, the levees broke up and down the river. You can see the foundations of several buildings on the farm demolished during that flood on Google Maps.

It's late June, and the river is up again. Visit this plot of the observed and predicted River stage for the next few days.

The river stage is predicted to crest slightly higher than the record, which occurred the day after the levees broke in that area during the 1993 flood.

Let's hope they're stronger now.

If they don't get any rain, they might just last.

Update



The district Indian Grave is the one. Looks like flooding is happening although it's not clear where.

Update

The whole district is flooded. The levees weren't high enough and water flowed over the top quickly eroding the rest and flooding the entire area. It's going to be a while before the flood waters recede. The rather neat barn and shop will be subjected to windstorms and floating debris (trees, houses, etc). Hopefully, they'll withstand the torrents well enough. They're really priceless structures I'd rather be able to see and visit. I think my sister has a few photos on Facebook.

This barn is visible in the upper right corner in the background of this image:


The shed I built last summer when I was there was recently seen floating north, away from the farm. I wouldn't call it priceless, but it'd be nice if they could retrieve it eventually.