We are starting to feel the impact of the Mississippi flooding as some refineries are reducing capacity. As the following story details, gasoline has risen 9.3% at the wholesale level in the past two days. If three million acres are flooded in Louisiana, the cost of gasoline will reach $5.00 per gallon by Memorial Day. We will see what the government’s contingency plans are when their gasoline tax revenues are curtailed as we cannot afford to drive.
David DeGerolamo
Three Million Acres May Be Flooded in Louisiana
Three million acres, an area almost the size of Connecticut, may go under water as the Mississippi River flooding moves south and threatens Louisiana.
“Based on inundation maps we are looking at, about 3 million acres in Louisiana will be under water,” Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal said at a press conference in Baton Rouge. About 2,500 people inside the floodway may be affected and 22,500 may be affected by backwater flooding, he said.
The river was expected to hold just below 48 feet (14.6 meters) for a day in Memphis before the floods move south toward Louisiana and then empty into the Gulf of Mexico past New Orleans in about two weeks. It was at 47.74 feet at 4:45 p.m. local time, according to the weather service’s website.
To relieve the threat to New Orleansand Baton Rouge, Louisiana’s capital, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers may open the Morganza floodway. Opening the floodway halfway would inundate a swath of central Louisiana along the Atchafalaya River with 5 feet to 20 feet of water. The decision to open the floodway may come as soon as May 14, Jindal said.
“The trigger is 1.5 million cubic feet of water a second going past the Red River Landing,” Jindal said. “We are at approximately 1.36 million right now.”
Gasoline futures advanced yesterday amid concern that the flooding will disrupt fuel production and distribution. Futures rose 3.1 percent to $3.3797 a gallon on the New York Mercantile Exchange, adding to a 6.1 percent gain yesterday, the biggest since July 2009. Oil rose 1.3 percent to $103.88 a barrel.
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