Mississippi River

Some improvement in the travel situation on the Mississippi River.

A five mile stretch of the Mississippi River at Baton Rouge has been closed after several grain barges broke loose and struck the US 190 Bridge.

The Atchafalya River in St. Martin Parish is expected to rise nearly a foot a day until it crests at an estimated 27 feet on Tuesday.

The Mississippi River has been opened back up at Natchez, but barge traffic is still moving very slow.

The Army Corps of Engineers says 16 of 125 bays are now open on the Morganza spillway upriver from Baton Rouge, sending water from the Mississippi River into the Atchafalaya River at a rate of 108,000 cubic feet per second.

Rising water on the Mississippi River and the flooding of the spillways will create ideal breeding conditions for mosquitoes.

River pilots and exporters are warning that the mouth of the Mississippi River is silting in, threatening a major commercial route, because there is not enough money to pay for dredges that normally keep the channel open.

An autopsy will be performed today to determine a cause of death and positively identify a body pulled from the Mississippi River near Kenner yesterday.