As the MSM and the government bureaucrats keep peddling their economic recovery propaganda to make you buy shit on credit, they pretend the problems of 2012 are long gone. They are big peddlers of hope. Remember the terrible drought that drove wheat, corn and soybean prices up 20% to 40%. The delayed impact on meat prices will hit in 2013 with smaller herds because farmers had to slaughter livestock last year to pay the bills. Now we see the drought has not improved. The spring growing season is a few months away. There is an excellent chance the drought will continue throughout 2013. This will drive food prices and ethanol prices higher as the country is already in recession, taxes on the middle class have been raised and Obamacare is driving up costs and resulting in more layoffs. The higher food prices should do wonders for stability in the Middle East and Asia. But CNBC says to buy stocks before it’s too late.
Updating The Plains Drought
The most prominent drought areas remain the center of the nation, from Minnesota south through Texas and west to the Rocky Mountains, with exceptional drought conditions dominating much of the Plains.
Hopes were that winter snow and precipitation would help ease some of the drought across the center of the country. While there is some snow cover from Northern Kansas northeast through Minnesota, it’s not much and precipitation this winter across the Plains has been, well, pretty pitiful on the whole.
Rainfall over the past sixty days across the Plains and Midwest remains below normal — running generally in the 50-75% of average department. It’s a bit better than last summer when rainfall was in the 20% range but it’s still a far ways off of normal.
Winter is particularly important for wheat crops in the Plains, which are planted in the Fall and go dormant during the height of the cold season (late December through early March) before resuming growth in the Spring. Over 30% of Central Kansas’ winter wheat crop has failed this season due to the prolonged drought and failure rates over 25% are likely provided rainfall doesn’t improve soon.
Unfortunately, weather patterns don’t look terribly supportive of significant rains and snows across the Southern or Central Plains for the next several weeks. A more active storm track this Spring, with the unfortunate byproduct of severe weather, may help put a nice dent in the drought bucket but odds are starting lean strongly in the direction of another summer of Plains drought…and probably heat as well.
Stan says:
Less spendable income bitchez!
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12th January 2013 at 2:36 pm
Ron says:
It fits right in with an evil plan by AWD and Michelle Obammy to put the whole country on a diet.
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12th January 2013 at 3:13 pm
sangell says:
Maybe just as well we have another bad harvest in the Northern Plains because they might not be able to get their crops to market anyway with the Mississippi drying up. There are already having to reduce the loads barges can carry and if the river falls another foot or so that’s it. It will be closed to navigation.
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12th January 2013 at 3:24 pm
SSS says:
Well, given that east Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Arkansas, and central California grow nearly all of the U.S. rice crop, we’re good to go on that, according to the precip chart.
On the other hand, I just read a snippet that nearly 25% of last year’s corn crop was lost due to the drought. Another price increase hit to the lower and middle income classes in America. But Admin’s right. The biggest hit will be especially in the Middle East. More Arab Springs on the way.
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12th January 2013 at 3:36 pm
Administrator says:
Corps Averts Mississippi River Shutdown, Despite Drought
ST. LOUIS (AP) – Shippers who have idled towboats and lightened barge loads as the Mississippi River shrinks from drought credit the waterway’s stewards for so far averting their worst fear: a potentially crippling shutdown of the artery used to move everything from corn and grain to construction materials and petroleum.
Barge operators still are being squeezed financially because of restrictions on the waterway. But “the Army Corps of Engineers has done a great job of pulling rabbits out of their hat” by scrambling to rid one crucial river stretch of treacherous bedrock while strategically releasing water from lakes into the Mississippi to raise the river, said Rick Calhoun, president of Cargo Carriers, Cargill Inc.’s shipping arm with 1,300 barges.
“We believed it was an oncoming crisis, and by hook and by crook it hasn’t gotten as bad as we thought,” he added. “That’s great news.”
Barge industry trade groups had been critical of the corps, warning that the river soon could close after the agency cut the flow of the Missouri River into the Mississippi amid the worst U.S. drought in decades. The corps rebuffed the industry’s pleas that the flow from a South Dakota dam be restored, saying the pullback was needed to protect interests on the upper Missouri.
To compensate, the corps rushed in contractors in December – two months ahead of schedule – to clear limestone from the Mississippi’s bottom near Thebes, Ill., where increasing shallowness made the jagged bedrock more precarious for vessels.
The corps and barge operators agree that the rock removal is working, though not without some inconvenience for shippers. Barge traffic at that stretch is now limited to an eight-hour window each day, causing bottlenecks and slowing transit times of cargo.
Shipping groups have warned that if the waterway there were to drop to a point in which barge weight restrictions were further tightened, shipping would effectively stop. Drafts, or the portion of each barge that is submerged, already are limited to 9 feet in the middle Mississippi, down from 12 feet. Trade group officials say that if drafts are restricted to 8 feet or lower, many operators will stop shipping.
While lessening cargo weight helps barges ride higher, shipping costs increase because more barges are required to move the cargo and tow boats go through more fuel because more trips become necessary.
The National Weather Service hydrological forecast as of Thursday showed that the river at Thebes – about 130 miles south of St. Louis – still would be 2 feet higher than the threshold for more possible barge restrictions as of Feb. 6, the latest date on the outlook.
Mike Petersen, a corps spokesman in St. Louis, said the river’s extremely low level at Thebes has allowed contractors using explosives and two dredging crews to rid rock pinnacles much faster than anticipated, adding roughly 3 feet of depth to the channel. “If there’s any silver lining with the low water, that’s it,” he said.
The corps also has released water from at least two Midwest lakes – Iowa’s Red Rock Lake and southern Illinois’ Carlyle Lake, the latter accounting for two 6-inch rises in the Mississippi that Petersen said “made a huge difference.”
“It truly is a battle of inches when the river is this low,” he said.
Barge operators hope that if the corps can keep the Mississippi passable for the next month or so, spring rains, snow melt off and the back-to-normal release from the Missouri could raise the Mississippi, erasing any lingering alarm about shipping.
The size of Cargo Carriers’ barges on the Mississippi is roughly half of what they typically would be, Calhoun said. And because of earlier concerns about the river’s passability, the Cargill arm loaded some northbound barges to only an 8-foot draft, knowing that for every foot of reduced draft 200 fewer tons – or 13 percent – gets shipped.
Cargo Carriers also declined other business and cleared out some equipment north of St. Louis, fearing a river closure would trap those assets, Calhoun said.
“The good news is that it hasn’t gotten as bad,” Calhoun said.
At AEP River Operations, many of the company’s 3,100 barges and roughly 100 towboats were parked while the river was falling, said Marty Hettel, senior manager of bulk sales. But the corps’ work at Thebes – and more-promising river gauge forecasts – prompted AEP to press idled vessels into action, giving the company as much as 350,000 tons of capacity in the next couple weeks.
Still, “It’s a hold-your-breath moment,” said Lynn Muench of the American Waterways Operators trade group. “We’re not out of the woods.”
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12th January 2013 at 3:50 pm
Thunderbird says:
China is not purchasing excessive amounts of rice for nothing. They are also securing their fishing rights and then some in the Pacific all the way to Micronesia. China forecasts the future and constructs economic plans for 10 year periods unlike the west that does not plan for more than 4 years.
We had better wake up and get out drought plan in order. World weather is changing which means drought is a very real possibility in areas that always had rain.
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12th January 2013 at 4:04 pm
juanstalkerchen says:
Tbird, i suspect you are not part of the inner party. They have 20 year plans which are coordinated with the EU and Rus/Sin.
“But CNBC says to buy stocks before it’s too late.” I wonder if CNBC has got advice on buying into ammunition stocks – before it’s too late?
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12th January 2013 at 4:21 pm
Administrator says:
United Nations agricultural experts are reporting confusion, after figures show that China imported 2.6 million tons of rice in 2012, substantially more than a four-fold increase over the 575,000 tons imported in 2011.
The confusion stems from the fact that there is no obvious reason for vastly increased imports, since there has been no rice shortage in China. The speculation is that Chinese importers are taking advantage of low international prices, but all that means is that China’s own vast supplies of domestically grown rice are being stockpiled.
Why would China suddenly be stockpiling millions of tons of rice for no apparent reason?
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12th January 2013 at 4:24 pm
Chicago999444 says:
Stockpile food staples as an inflation hedge, my grasshoppers, because it feels like we’re setting up for another catastrophic drought out here in the Midwest. We are experiencing another much-warmer-than-normal winter here in the central states, with much lower levels of precipitation than usual. We have yet to have a real snowfall here in Chicago- more than an inch. We’ve had only one light, short-lived snowfall and a few days of rain all winter.
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12th January 2013 at 4:25 pm
Administrator says:
Extraordinary snow needed to relieve Midwest drought
ST. LOUIS (AP) — When his drought-stricken Nebraska farm was blanketed with several inches of snow, Tom Schwarz welcomed the moisture. But it wasn’t nearly enough.
He had hoped for a wet, snowy winter. Instead, he’s watched with worry as the sky spits mostly flakes that don’t stick.
“I just shudder to think what it’s going to be if we don’t get snow,” Schwarz said. “A friend told me it would take 150 inches of snow to get us back to normal precipitation.”
Despite getting some big storms last month, much of the U.S. is still desperate for relief from the nation’s longest dry spell in decades. And experts say it will take an absurd amount of snow to ease the woes of farmers and ranchers.
The same fears haunt firefighters, water utilities and many communities across the country.
Winter storms have dropped more than 15 inches of snow on parts of the Midwest and East in recent weeks. Climatologists say it would take at least 8 feet of snow – and likely far more – to return the soil to its pre-drought condition in time for spring planting. A foot of snow is roughly equal to an inch of water, depending on density.
Many areas are begging for moisture after a summer that caused water levels to fall to near-record lows on lakes Michigan and Huron. The Mississippi River has declined so much that barge traffic south of St. Louis could soon come to a halt.
In the West, firefighters worry that a lack of snow will leave forests and fields like tinder come spring, risking a repeat of the wildfires that burned some 9.2 million acres in 2012.
Scores of cities that have already enacted water restrictions are thinking about what they will do in 2013 if heavy snows and spring rains don’t materialize.
For a while, it seemed no snow would come. Midwestern cities including Chicago, Milwaukee and Des Moines, Iowa, had their latest first snows on record. How much would it take to make things right?
“An amount nobody would wish on their worst enemy,” said David Pearson, a National Weather Service hydrologist in Omaha, Neb. “It’s so out of this world it wouldn’t make much scientific sense (to guess). It would take a record-breaking snowfall for the season to get us back on track.”
That’s why Schwarz is worried about his 750 acres near Lexington in south-central Nebraska. To save his corn last summer, he pulled water from deep wells and other sources in his irrigation district, but the alfalfa he couldn’t irrigate died, something he’s never had happen before.
The soil was so dry he didn’t even try to sow winter wheat, a crop that’s planted in the fall and goes dormant over winter, relying on snow as a protective blanket.
“If we don’t get snow, we’d better get rain this spring or we’re done,” Schwarz said.
The 150 inches – more than 12 feet – isn’t likely to materialize. That would be about four times the average winter snowfall in Chicago, a city famous for its storms. Schwarz’s area usually gets about 29.5 inches of snow during the winter. As of Dec. 27, it had just 6.5 inches.
Even if a massive storm developed, the temperature would have to be right for farmers to benefit. If snow melts on frozen ground, the water will run off into rivers and streams, instead of being absorbed into the soil.
Runoff would be welcome in Sioux Falls, S.D., which was among countless communities that clamped down on water use last summer as rivers and lakes that supply power plants and households grew shallower.
South Dakota’s biggest city imposed its first water restrictions since 2003 as the Big Sioux River, which recharges its aquifers, dropped. Homeowners were limited to watering lawns once a week. Washing outdoor surfaces like sidewalks, driveways and parking lots was banned.
“This is the driest year in our town’s history since the early 1950s,” Mayor Mike Huether said as 2012 drew to a close.
With just 5 inches of snow and some rain so far this winter, the conservation efforts will be back in place for 2013 “unless we get one heck of a snowfall and bust this drought,” Huether said.
Western states rely on snow and ice that accumulate in the mountains during the winter for as much as 80 percent of their freshwater for the year, according to the Department of Agriculture’s Natural Resources Conservation Service. The melting snowpack replenishes streams, rivers and reservoirs and provides water for cities and crops.
A deep snowpack can also make the wildfire season more manageable by wetting forests and fields.
Tom O’Connor, the rural fire chief in Divide, Colo., would relish that after enduring what the governor called the state’s worst wildfire season ever in 2012.
O’Connor’s volunteer department responded to more than 80 calls in June, compared with the usual 30 calls. Three-fourths of the calls were related to wildfires.
The fires came after Colorado got one of its smallest snowpacks in years – by some accounts tying 2002 as the lowest snow buildup in the 45 years that records have been kept.
Still, climatologists caution that it’s too early in the winter to give up hope.
“We could be singing a different tune this winter if a storm system cooperates,” said Dave Robinson, a Rutgers University geography professor who’s also the New Jersey state climatologist. “Sometimes you get what you wish for.”
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12th January 2013 at 4:36 pm
sangell says:
Very cold in the California Central Valley. Citrus crop may get hit very hard. I wanted my girlfriend to get some grapefruit from her mother as she has some trees in her yard in SW Florida. Last year my request was met with two big box fulls of grapefruit. This year none as her trees did not produce any!
I wanted them because I noticed they were $1.25 each in the store this year versus less than a dollar each last year. Don’t know what is going on with grapefruit here in Florida but if California loses its citrus because of the cold weather my breakfast menu is going to take another hit because bacon has become almost as expensive as steak.
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12th January 2013 at 4:55 pm
juanstalkerchen says:
sangell, i hear you about the california drought, it’s been going on for several years as you may know better than i do, just want to say that i read grapefruit interacts, nullifies or amplifies certain boomer drugs like statins. the gist of the story is grapfruit is bad for you if you take drugs for your health.
i also read where americanos are heading to bolivia and ecuador to study why people in those places live so long. i could save them a few bucks, they don’t eat bacon for breakfast and they work hard, not like the george bush definition of working hard, working hard, but i mean they are physically active producing their own food.
hmm, makes me wonder about that story in genesis where adam and eve were thrown out of the garden lest they should touch the tree of life and live forever, he advised adam to go and earn his food by the sweat of his brow. could that be the secret of long life?
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12th January 2013 at 6:02 pm
JIMSKI says:
HEY ADMIN SHUTUP!
You know they monitor this site. You just gave them a reason to raise snap card payouts.
Just kidding but seriously ya were fucked
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12th January 2013 at 6:10 pm
sangell says:
They work hard to grow food in Somalia too but lifespans are pretty short ( nasty and brutish too). Jeanne Calment, who was the oldest confirmed person ever dying at 122 years 164 days, smoked till she was 117 when the nursing home took her matches from her. Of course I am not saying that smoking assists in longevity ( though it may reduce the risk of Alzheimers) it is that there is no substitute for the right genes if you want to live long. Palm readers may have been onto something with their ‘lifelines’. Moles maybe related to telomeres, which are a sort of biological fuze on our chromosomes that break off each time a cell divides. Women have more moles than men and live longer. I skeptical of these claims of third world longevity that appear from time to time and place to place. If you weren’t born in a society that has real records its hard to verify age particularly when you talk about centenarians. Ain’t nobody around to call you a liar if you say you are 108 when you may really only be 96.
Is bacon bad for you? Well I wouldn’t recommend half a pound a day of it especially if you have a history of heart disease in your family but it isn’t poisonous. I’ve heard that grapefruit can affect drug effects though I certainly would classify it as very healthy food.
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12th January 2013 at 6:53 pm
SSS says:
“We are experiencing another much-warmer-than-normal winter here in the central states.”
—-Chicago999444
And in the meantime, it’s colder than a well digger’s ass here in Tucson. Low 40s for a high today with an overnight low in the mid 20s. And that’s the forecast for the next 3-4 days. We’ve got the lemon tree covered with a sheet, and it looks like a fucking snow cone.
Double whammy. My golf game is in the shitter, and so’s the weather.
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12th January 2013 at 6:58 pm
Chicago999444 says:
Sangell, I’ve heard of the link between nicotine and that it may reduce the chance of developing Alzheimers.
Instead of smoking, use electronic cigs and liquid nicotine. I could not live without my liquid nicotine. Or, rather, people around me might not live very long if I don’t have my liquid nicotine.
It beats the hell out of drugs that make me want to commit suicide, like Chantex.
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12th January 2013 at 6:58 pm
napari says:
Last year slow moving tropical storm Debbie saved florida from the drought.
Dear Lord, I never thought I’d be thankful for a storm but I sure am this time. Amen
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12th January 2013 at 7:03 pm
Administrator says:
SSS
Another Double Whammy. Was it cold or was she just happy to see you?
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12th January 2013 at 7:03 pm
Administrator says:
SSS’ putting game is suffering.
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12th January 2013 at 7:06 pm
SSS says:
Admin
The guy’s I play golf with are a great bunch, but older than dirt. We need some young blood, male or female, to kick it up a notch when we get together to play. I nominate the following LPGA tour player. We’d make it worthwhile if she’d quit the tour.
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12th January 2013 at 7:36 pm
sangell says:
Here’s rachel connor’s mug shot. She got busted on Siesta Key last year for DUI.
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12th January 2013 at 7:52 pm
SSS says:
sangell
The pic I posted is not LPGA pro Rachel Connor. It’s Natalie Gulbis. Here’s Natalie in her working clothes.
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12th January 2013 at 8:11 pm
AWD says:
The drought is but a memory. We’re getting flooded at the moment. And an ice storm tomorrow.
I can’t see SSS getting smoked by a girl
Natalie Gulbis
Gulbis has been playing golf since the age of four. Her game has developed a lot since then, and so has her chest. She won her first tournament in 2007, and has earned well over a million since going pro. However, I’m sure a properly leaked sex tape would make her a lot more.
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12th January 2013 at 8:11 pm
AWD says:
I rent this hood ornament when I play golf
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12th January 2013 at 8:14 pm
Eddie says:
Actually most of the rice crop in Texas is grown in the Colorado Basin, which is severely affected by the drought. Rice farmers have generally depended on irrigation water from Lake Travis, but the Lake is at 40% of capacity presently. No water for the rice farmers will be forthcoming during the coming growing season.
http://news.yahoo.com/texas-rice-farming-towns-struggle-222757448.html
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12th January 2013 at 8:27 pm
Kill Bill says:
http://phys.org/news/2013-01-collapse-global-civilization.html
We need rain, not royalty.
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12th January 2013 at 10:07 pm
Administrator says:
By Elliot Spagat, The Associated Press
Updated at 4:30 p.m. ET: Californians are bundling up with sweaters and gloves and stocking up on firewood as they brace for several nights of freezing temperatures.
The National Weather Service is forecasting morning frost on San Diego beaches. Big Sur, on the central coast, prepared for daytime highs almost 20 degrees below Boston’s. Even the snowbird haven of Palm Springs faced the possibility of freezing temperatures at night.
In addition, San Diego zookeepers turned up the heat for chimpanzees and some farmers broke out wind machines and took other steps to protect crops from freezing.
Freeze warnings were in effect in San Diego County valleys and deserts Saturday morning with lows in the 20s and 30s, the weather service said.
In Sonoma County, homeless shelters started handing out extra warm clothes on Friday to protect people from freezing overnight temperatures.
Arizona faces its coldest night time temperature in years, threatening crops. Meanwhile, the weather is spring-like in parts of the East Coast. NBC’s Kristen Dahlgren reports.
Morning temps fell into the 20s and 30s in many areas, and much lower in the mountains. A low of 12 degrees was recorded in the Big Bear mountain resort east of Los Angeles.
By midday Saturday, the temperature had warmed to the mid-50s – balmy for most everywhere else in the country but frigid in Southern California.
In an official weather advisory on Saturday, the National Weather Service wrote: “The bad news for those people who don’t like cold temperatures is that any moderation in these frigid conditions is forecast to be slow heading into next week, with below-normal readings continuing.”
It was, the Weather Service noted, a contradiction: The West Coast, usually mild-weathered, was uncharacteristically cool. Parts of the East Coast, by contrast, boasted spring temperatures. The Appalachians could see highs in the 60s and 70s — at least 20 degrees above average.
‘Crazy busy’ at firewood store
Some customers drove more than an hour to buy firewood.
“It’s crazy busy here,” said Renea Teasdale, office manager at The Woodshed in Orange, south of Los Angeles.
Still, it was business as usual as much of the state contended with temperatures in the high 40s and low 50s.
“It’s still sunny Southern California, and I’m going to work on my legs all year long,” said Linda Zweig, a spokeswoman for the Del Mar Fairgrounds, which is hosting a 5-kilometer (about 3-mile) run north of San Diego on Sunday. The lifelong San Diego-area resident is prone to wearing two sweatshirts when the temperature drops but refuses to give up on shorts.
In the San Joaquin Valley, the heart of California’s citrus production, growers prepared for another round of freezing temperatures late Friday after seeing little crop damage Thursday night.
They run wind machines and water to protect their fruit, which can raise the temperature in a grove by up to 4 degrees, said Paul Story, director of grower service at California Citrus Mutual. Existing moisture, sporadic rain and cloud cover can also help keep in heat.
Andy Coker, an assistant manager for the Limoneria Company farm in Santa Paula, a leading grower of avocados, lemons and oranges, told NBC Bay Area that he would be pulling “all nighters, all weekend probably for the next four or five days,“ trying to keep hundreds of acres of avocado trees warm.
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12th January 2013 at 10:22 pm
Muck About says:
While SSS freezes his cojones off, this will be the year of “No Winter” in Florida. Today’s high was 82, low of 64. Same the rest of the week.
I do not look for it to continue, however. Our “normals” for this time of year is 70 for high and 56 for low.
This is why, when searching for a place to retire, one drives South until you see an orange tree. Then you keep going 45 minutes. That’s here. Seasons without the pain.
Also a bonus if you live in the middle of the State as I do.. We’re 65 miles from either the Atlantic or the Gulf coasts so when the West Antarctic Ice Sheet destabilizes and go’s “plop!” and raises ocean levels 10 feet world wide, I will have a far shorter trip for saltwater fishing while not getting the house wet..
Of course, by then there may be no saltwater fishing due to collapse of the ocean food chain through excessive absorption of CO2 (hear it “fizzz” when the wave breaks?)..
The human race is currently racing toward a wall at the end of a one way single lane tunnel with no lights visible anywhere.. We’re mostly stupid, greedy, non-thinking and selfish animals that will, one day real soon, prove Malthus correct and in more ways than food.
I feel better now.
MA
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12th January 2013 at 5:27 pm
llpoh says:
Muck – glad to see you up and about and posting. And your sunny disposition and positive outlook aways cheers me up!
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12th January 2013 at 5:34 pm
AKAnon says:
Funny, it may be colder in SoCal than here in Fairbanks AK. After a cold November & most of December (typical temps -20 to -40F), things warmed up around Christmas, with plenty of +0 temps, and about +30F today. Tomorrow is forecast for +36, which may be a record for the day. But by Tuesday, back to 0, and -teens thereafter. Meanwhile, my relatives in LA are worried about a freeze-ha.
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12th January 2013 at 9:59 pm
Administrator says:
Louisiana Barges Idled by Drought Upstream on Mississippi
By Brian Wingfield – Jan 14, 2013 12:34 PM ET
Matt Lagarde manages a fleet of towboats in Louisiana and watched with dread as a drought last year seared crops across the farm belt 1,000 miles upstream on the Mississippi River.
Now the effects of the worst dry spell in 70 years are making their way to the river’s delta, said Lagarde, 41, who has worked on the nation’s busiest waterway for half his life.
“Things just look fairly dismal over the next couple of months,” said Lagarde, with AEP River Operations LLC in Convent, 57 miles west of New Orleans. “In the next couple of weeks, you’re really going to see things start to tighten out.”
Though rain has been plentiful in Louisiana, operators all along the Mississippi have lost work as diminished crops sap export tonnage and low water narrows the channel and jams up barges. AEP, a unit of American Electric Power Co. (AEP), has had to shift workers around as it idled boats. It is working through January without the usual profit from the previous year to tide it over, Lagarde said.
Louisiana, a state sustained by river commerce, is braced for the impact as barge traffic slows in the shallow water. About 7,000 jobs in the state — more than any other — would be at risk if record-low water forced shipping to halt, according to the American Waterways Operators, an Arlington, Virginia- based industry group.
Grain Shipments
About $2.8 billion worth of cargo, including coal, fertilizer and crude oil, moves along the river in a typical January, the group estimates. Barges carried about 388,000 tons of grain on the river in the week ended Jan. 5, a 24 percent drop from a year earlier, the U.S. Department of Agriculture reported Jan. 10.
“Many shippers moved product in early December, anticipating navigation difficulties due to low flows,” the agency said in its weekly “Grain Transportation Report.” An unusually large amount of grain is traveling to New Orleans by rail or being stored in silos until the river rises, it said.
While grain shipments have declined, barge owners have had enough residual work from the harvest and shipments of other commodities to keep business afloat, said Lagarde.
“There’s no question that this has the potential to be a crisis,” John Little, terminals manager in the New Orleans area for International-Matex Tank Terminals, said in a phone interview. The company, which stores liquid products including vegetable oil that are delivered by barge, has no plans to dismiss workers for a “short-term blip like this,” he said.
9 Feet
If the current situation lasts beyond May, it will cease to be short-term, he said.
The National Weather Service on Jan. 9 forecast that the river at St. Louis will fall to about 9 feet by the end of the month, a level most towboats can’t navigate safely, according to the Waterways Operators. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has completed the first phase of emergency work to keep the river open, excavating rock obstacles near southern Illinois.
“If the Corps can maintain a 9-foot navigation channel through the spring, the shipping industry is grateful for the news,” Debra Colbert, senior vice president for the Waterways Council Inc., a public policy group that includes shippers and ports, said in an e-mail. The expedited rock removal and the possibility of precipitation “may just have averted a closure of the nation’s busiest waterways transportation artery.”
Cargo conditions on the Mississippi River are far from normal. American Commercial Lines Inc. can’t send barges from Louisiana to St. Louis to fetch 200,000 tons of coal because the vessels can’t reach the docks there, according Doug Faust, a licensed towboat captain who manages marine operations for the company in New Orleans.
Not Hiring
“If the water falls out and shuts down the river, they’re trapped,” Jeff Kindl, vice president of Gulf operations for American Commercial and chairman of the local port safety council, said in an interview after a council luncheon at the New Orleans Yacht Club on Lake Pontchartrain.
The company, based in Jeffersonville, Indiana, has lost about $27 million in revenue and foregone business since the drought began and has idled boats and workers, he said.
“We’re not hiring where we normally would be hiring,” Kindl said.
Canal Barge Co. in New Orleans may consider restricting bonus pay and raises if conditions persist, Chief Executive Officer Merritt Lane said in an interview at the company’s downtown headquarters. He said he wants to avoid furloughs that would cost him experienced workers.
The barge operator, which transports oil to refineries upriver for companies including Exxon Mobil Corp. (XOM) of Irving, Texas, has experienced shipping delays, according to Lane.
Disrupted Business
“It hurts our customers because it’s completely disrupting their business,” he said. “Ultimately it’s clear that the consumer gets hurt. There’s going to be either scarcity or higher prices.”
Unlike in New York and New Jersey, where cargo handling is clustered among a handful of waterfronts, the work in Louisiana is spread among an array of complexes dotting the river for more than 100 miles (161 kilometers) north of the Mississippi River delta.
Much agricultural cargo is unloaded with the help of machines at the Port of South Louisiana, which stretches for 54 miles along the river between New Orleans and Baton Rouge. There the goods are transferred to grain elevators operated by companies including Archer-Daniels-Midland Co. (ADM) of Decatur, Illinois.
Cargo in 20- and 40-foot-long shipping containers goes through the Port of New Orleans. Longshoremen arrive at a hiring yard near the wharves there at 6 a.m. and 4 p.m. daily seeking work.
“The stevedores haven’t been affected yet because there’s a lot of inbound cargo” from the Gulf, said Frank Morton, director and founder of Turn Services Inc., an affiliate of stevedoring company Associated Terminals Inc. which manages and repairs barge fleets.
“The problem is the uncertainty,” Morton said. “How long are we going to be able to do this?”
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12th January 2013 at 2:50 pm
Muck About says:
@llpoh: Don’t you dare mock old Muck as being a pessimist! I’d love to have ocean front property and in the mean time, I get to subsidize the home owners insurance for all those rich bastards who build on the beach 65 miles from where I live! (via the Florida State run insurance company that insures everyone that the private insurers won’t touch – and makes me pay a surcharge on my insurance to “hep out”!)
What more could one ask from an insane State Government that insists on encouraging idiots (Don’t worry! Be Happy! The State will rebuild your McMansion right there on that sand dune where your old crappy house used to be!) to populate a storm tide zone!
Ah well. We all have our cross to bear and I know for a fact that your cross is bigger than my cross!
MA
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12th January 2013 at 5:29 pm
llpoh says:
Muck – I am whittling that sucker down everday. Pretty soon It will be the size of two crossed matchsticks. They can bleed some other poor sucker. They want me to pay “my fair share” – ha! – and tell me I didn’t build what I thought I built. Guess seeing as I didn’t build it, they will jump in there and keep things running when I pull the pin. Maybe they will let me know when they actually find the fellow who did build it. Hope they can get their fare share from him.
I thought that was a great little comic! Hope you enjoyed it. Am really pleased you keep on keeping on around here.
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12th January 2013 at 5:45 pm