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Mississippi River Floods Deep South

Late winter storms March 10–12, 2016, drenched areas of Louisiana, eastern Texas, Mississippi, and Arkansas with up to 20 inches of rain, causing significant damage and evacuations.

Louisiana officials say the resulting flooding there is among the most widespread for any non-hurricane event ever seen. These images acquired by Landsat 8 clearly capture the scope of that historical inundation.

Though earlier storms in January had already pushed the Lower Mississippi River toward the top of its banks, the meandering waterway appears largely contained in the image on the left, acquired March 4, 2016. Sixteen days later, however, the satellite’s sensors reveal something much more dramatic.



In the center of the March 20 image, the deep blue floodwaters spill on to the landscape surrounding Vicksburg, MS. At the bottom center, the river is engorged just south of Natchez, MS, as it flows off the image on its way to Baton Rouge, LA.



Smaller tributaries west across the border in Louisiana show the impact of the drenching rains as well, testifying to the most widespread flooding in the region since Hurricanes Isaac (August 2012) and Katrina (August 2005).

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