Mississippi Reopens as Flooding Wanes
The Mississippi River, the most important US commercial waterway, reopened to water navigation on Saturday, July 5, 2008, after its locks were closed for nearly a month because of the worst flooding in 15 years. At the height of the flooding, which began in early June, nearly 300 miles of the Mississippi River was closed to barge traffic, disrupting shipments of grain, coal, and petroleum products. The flooding has caused billions of dollars in damages and wiped out millions of acres of corn and soybeans.