Sherry Chen Helped Tame the 2011 Mississippi River Floods
National Weather Service, USACEE and several other agencies leveraged Sherry Chen’s Model to Tame the Floods and Save Tens of Thousands of Lives
Courtesy of NPR
The Mississippi River floods in April and May 2011 were among the largest and most damaging recorded along the U.S. waterway in the past century, comparable in extent to the major floods of 1927 and 1993. In April 2011, two major storm systems deposited record levels of rainfall on the Mississippi River watershed. When that additional water combined with the springtime snowmelt, the river and many of its tributaries began to swell to record levels by the beginning of May. U.S. President Barack Obama declared the western counties of Kentucky, Tennessee, and Mississippi federal disaster areas.
Ms. Sherry Chen, an award winning hydrologist at National Weather Service, was working behind the scene to fine tune her models to predict the water volumes of the Mississippi River and the Ohio River, and the levels of the devastating floods. National Weather Service, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and several other agencies leveraged the models that Sherry built to devise a plan and put it in action to avoid the loss of tens of thousands of lives and billion dollar worth of property damage that could could have matched the 1927 floods.
According to NASA‘s data, during the 1927 floods, 26,000 square miles of land had flooded in seven states, killing at least 246 people and destroying 41,487 buildings. As a loyal American citizen, Sherry Chen dedicated her life’s work to the nation and made a difference in many’s life.
The public hearing of Sherry Chen’s appeal against the government for wrongful termination and discrimination took place on March 14 and 15. Please check more details here. Please support Sherry Chen at sherrychendefensefund.org. Stay updated at: fb.me/Sherryhearing twitter.com/sherryhearing.
Many media outlets coverfb.me/Sherryhearing twitter.com/sherryhearinged the 2011 Mississippi River Floods for an extended period of time. Below is a partial list of the coverage, which provides some background about the scale and extent of the impact of Ms. Sherry Chen’s work.
Fox News Video: Levee Blown Up to Save Cairo, Illinois
5/3/2011 9:57AM
Engineers blow up a levee so that flood waters may begin to recede in the city of Cairo, Ill. The waters are currently over 26 feet above the flood level throughout the city. Video courtesy of Fox News.
Breathtaking videos on Facebook by Landsat and U.S. Coast Guard Heartland
NPR: Missouri Levee Blast Eases Threat To Illinois Town
May 3, 201112:45 PM ET Picture of Water flowing over the breach: Water flowed through a breach in the Birds Point levee Tuesday in Mississippi County, Mo., after the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers blasted open a 2-mile hole Monday night. Jeff Roberson/AP
NASA: Flooding at the Junction of the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers
May 6, 2011 Aero Picture of the junction of the ttwo rivers, Cario, IL, and Birds Point Levee
Missouri levee blown up to save Illinois town
The Guardian: US army blasts holes in Missouri levee to save town from flooding destruction
Engineers have blown up a levee in the US midwest, hoping to save a historic town from destruction by raging flood waters – but condemning a vast expanse of rich agricultural farmland.
Cairo, which lies on the confluence of the Mississippi and Ohio rivers, was an important steamboat port in the 1800s, and served for a few months as the headquarters for the union armies of Ulysses Grant early in the civil war. But the town is long past its heyday, and the decision to save Cairo outraged Missouri farmers and state officials who had fought to block the levee demolition in court.
Riverfront Times: Mississippi River Flooding Pictures from Cairo, IL
Posted By Sarah Fenske on Tue, May 10, 2011 at 10:32 am
Cario, IL: 2831 residents in May 2011
Save the town of Cairo, Illinois
Christian Science Monitor: Mississippi River flooding: After levee blast, threat shifts to Memphis
Late Monday, the US Army Corps of Engineers blasted a two-mile hole in a Mississippi River levee to relieve water pressure that was endangering Cairo, Ill. But problems remain downriver.
By Mark Guarino, Staff writer MAY 3, 2011
PBS: Levee Blast Floods Missouri Town, Spares Others Along Mississippi River
BY JENNY MARDER May 3, 2011 at 5:00 PM EST
AP/CBS News: Missouri levee blown up to save Illinois town
May 2, 2011, 11:37 PM
USA Today: Levee blasted along Mississippi River to spare Cairo, Ill.
By William M. Welch and Doyle Rice, USA TODAY