ONE SHLEP FOR MAN… Two men transported office furniture on tricycles in Beijing on Wednesday. (Photo: Adrian Bradshaw / EPA via the Wall Street Journal)
During last year’s spring floods along the Mississippi River, the Army Corps of Engineers blasted away three long stretches of earthen levee near here, saturating more than 130,000 acres of prime farmland with an estimated three trillion gallons of river water. Now, eight months and $25 million later, the nearly three miles of gaps have been filled in.
Inundating the Birds Point-New Madrid floodway — a move that had been employed only once before, in 1937 — was an extraordinary measure in response to record flooding, and it was intended to save property and lives on a grand scale. By many accounts it succeeded. Yet even as signs of recovery mount, the controversy over blasting the levee is still felt keenly by many in the area.
“I really feel it wasn’t necessary,” said Aretha Robinson, whose home in the village of Pinhook was washed away, along with the homes of about 30 other residents. Pinhook, she said, “just looks like a ghost town now.”
Milus Wallace, who farms land near the gap known as the center crevasse, estimates that he suffered some $2 million in damage, which will only be partly repaid through insurance of his home and crops. Ultimately, he said, “they could have manipulated that river enough to keep from having to blow up that levee.”
Still, Mr. Wallace and others acknowledge that their worst fears never materialized. “We survived this thing a whole lot better than I thought we would,” he said.
While signs of destruction — demolished homes, gouged landscapes, sand-covered pastures — are easy to find today, marks of recovery are evident as well.
Corps workers have brought the repaired levees to a height of 55 feet, measured against the river gauge at nearby Cairo, Ill., though another $20 million from Congress would be needed to bring them to the former height of 62.5 feet.
And while critics of the decision to blast — including Missouri state officials, who sued to block the corps — warned that the rich farmland would be inundated by toxins, these days green shoots of winter wheat are poking up through fields. Much of the wheat is a second crop, following soybeans that industrious farmers hurried to get into the ground just weeks after the flood. The corps estimates that 90 percent of the farmland is back in operation.
Fishery workers disposed of putrid fish that went bad in the wake of a deadly March 11 earthquake and tsunami as sea gulls flew overhead in Ishinomaki, Japan, Monday. (Photo: Kimimasa Mayama / EPA via the Wall St. Journal)
IN NUMBERS A refugee walked amid tents in Boynuyogun, Turkey, near the Syrian border, Monday. According to Turkey’s foreign ministry, thousands of Syrians have fled their country to escape a crackdown on antigovernment protests. (Photo: Vadim Ghirda / AP via the Wall St. Journal)
ASCEND OF THE ROAD Canadian soldiers searched inside a barn as they patrolled in the Panjwai district of Kandahar Province, Afghanistan, Monday. Canada will end its combat role in Afghanistan by the end of July. (Photo: Baz Ratner / Reuters via the Wall St. Journal)
I find the rudimentary architecture in this place fascinating: an (apparently) earthen construct, staircase encasing the entryway; storage for the tree branches possibly to be used as fuel; the punctured walls allowing light inside and air to ventilate. I wonder what the holes are for. Does anyone here know?
Made some Cupcakes for Mothers day even though it was late, but my friend didn’t had anything to give his Momma last sunday,so I decided to help him out, made the perfect gift, “Home Made Choco Cupcakes”
So here’s how to make it.
Ingredients:• 2 cup Cocoa Powder
• 4 Egg
The Biebz was great. LOLJK
He was sick so his voice was all…sickly and shit. But he still performed to his fans and he was disappointed. All these rich kids could do is scream. THE BIEBZ WANTED YOU TO JUMP, MOTHERFUCKERS.
Also, no. I’m still not a fan. But I thought JB could be a Sean Cody porn star. Tweeenk.
Craziest Hats at the Kentucky Derby, Pt. 2 (Via the New York Daily News)
(Photo: Adrian Dennis / AFP-Getty via the News)
