No Rollin' Along the River

Yesterday I had was going to try to ride my bike up the Riverfront Trail. I figured that the Mississippi had gone down enough. Well, no.

I reached the foot of Washington Avenue near the Arch and everything was under feet of water. I cut through Laclede's Landing and behind the Lumiere Casino to the entrance of the trail, which was dry. Riding along the trail was really strange. The Mississippi was just a few feet away and the flow was really boiling.

About a quarter-mile down the trail was a spot where the trail was covered by water. I made it through that. Another quarter-mile and there was what appeared to be a similar spot. I went it and was immediately up to my pedals in water.

I turned around and headed up to North Broadway. I got to ride, actually at a good clip because it's really flat, through a part of old St. Louis that few people see, and I wouldn't much recommend to tourists. You could make out the old manufacturing businesses, most prominently the former Mallinckrodt facility that was bought by Tyco and spun off to find new life in the growing medical care field last year as Covidien.
Across the street from the plant is the old Bremen bank and a diner called Chili Mac's. There is wholesale commercial plant nursery, with everything laid out on asphalt, and a couple of bag companys. Further South is a closed sign company with an amazing mural on the wall.

The whole levee situation is concerning, but one that is being addressed... finally. Last August FEMA asked the Corps of Engineers if the Illinois and Missouri levees would fail in a 100-year-flood (which, since Global Warning have been happening about ever 15 years). The Corps said yes, indeed we could be up to our eyeballs in the Big Muddy.

This prompted some hand-wringing in Illinois, which feared that it would lose developers who couldn't get flood insurance. But it also prompted three counties in Illinois and the City of St. Louis to cut loose of dollars to fix the situation. In June, a levee conference with Corps of Engineers and local officials from Illinois to California was held here. Among the topics of discussion was what progress has been made here.

“Until August last year, we didn’t know a whole lot about levees or think about them much,”Les Sterman, executive director of the East-West Gateway Council of Governments said. “We had a rude awakening when we were told our levee systems are inadequate, and that the area would be subject to increased flood risk.”