The Mississippi usually flows downstream at a rate of more than 3,500 cubic meters per second. This Tuesday (August 28), the winds that preceded Hurricane Isaac forced the waters to reverse, moving upstream at a rapid 5,200 cubic meters per second. The river rose to 10 feet above average levels, The US Geological Survey (USGS) reported this week.
"This reversal of flow of the mighty Mississippi is but one measure of the extreme force of Isaac," USGS director Marcia McNutt told BBC News. By Thursday, the Isaac was downgraded to tropical depression, but the storm is still expected to dump as much as 14 inches of rain over Louisiana, where hundreds of homes have already been flooded.
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