It's no secret that it's been a very rough year so far on the entire Mississippi River System. Never-ending rains have kept water levels high, closing many locks and dams more than once and shuttering the St. Louis Harbor numerous times, virtually stopping any traffic north or south of there. In fact, the Lower Mississippi River (LMR) has experienced continued flooding events since February 2019.
 
In the Upper Mississippi River (UMR), Locks 11 through 27 from the Illinois-Wisconsin border to St. Louis have been closed on and off over three months due to flooding conditions.
 
The Mississippi River at St. Louis has been at or above flood stage for 108 consecutive days as of July 2, topping the previous record of 104 days set during the Great Flood of 1993. The flooding caused the U.S. Coast Guard to close the harbor twice when the levels reached above 38 feet. Between those closures and the lock and dam closures, loaded and/or empty barges were stuck in the UMR with nowhere to go.
 
In the LMR at Vicksburg, Mississippi, the river was at 49.08 feet on July 15 (major flood stage is 50 feet) and is not expected to fall below flood stage until the end of July. In Baton Rouge, Louisiana, the river has been in flood stage most of 2019 and now, thanks to Barry, it may be until August when the Mississippi River there slips below flood stage. As of July 15, the river there was above major flood stage (35 feet) at 42.17 feet.
 
The river stage in New Orleans has been in its longest sustained flood stage level on record. The National Weather Service surge prediction on the Mississippi River there, because of Barry, was originally expected to be at 19 to 20 feet. The actual surge crest pushed the river to 16.93 feet late in the evening of July 12. The water level is not expected to go below 16 feet until late July, according to current predictions.
 
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