CAIRO, IL — Those freezing temperatures from last week are still having an effect on boats and barges on Tuesday. The upper Mississippi River was iced over for nearly 15 miles — to just north of Cairo, Illinois. All this ice brought river traffic to a halt last weekend, leading to major backups.
Boats and barges were slowed for miles, with ice covering the upper Mississippi River from mile marker three to mile marker 16. “There was a large amount of ice spilled up, kind of alone, on a pretty substantial section of the upper Mississippi River,” said Lt. Samuel Kulp.
Lt. Kulp, with the Marine Safety Unit in Paducah, said the ice formed up north, made its way here, and the freezing temperatures in the past week caused it to pile up. “So yesterday afternoon, about 2 o’clock, there was an ice gorge, which is essentially a huge buildup right there at the I-57 bridge, and it caused the river to physically back up. It was stopping the flow of the river, and that broke yesterday mid-afternoon,” he said.
“And so a lot of that ice is flowing down into the lower stretches of the Mississippi, and the rain yesterday and the warm temperatures are helping to break it up,” Lt. Kulp said. Until then, he said people should stay off the water.
They’ve already seen incidents of boats getting stuck in the ice. “We had one situation where a towing vessel may have had a buoy actually wrapped around the vessel. A lot of the aids have broken free and are floating free with the ice, so the channel is not marked the way it is supposed to be,” said Lt. Kulp.
Lt. Kulp said that within the next day or two, the Mississippi River should be clear of ice. Fog is also preventing many boats and barges from resuming normal business.