The Mississippi River flood waters have receded around St. Louis region. This has enabled people, who were earlier evacuated, to return back and deal with the aftermath. Now, the flood waters are moving downstream along the Mississippi River towards Arkansas, Tennessee and Mississippi.
The flood water levels will peak in Tennessee and northern Arkansas, during the weekend. According to local authorities, the flood waters will take few days to travel further south towards southern Arkansas, central Mississippi and Louisiana. The flood waters in these regions will not be as dangerous as in the north. Major part of the flood will affect from Arkansas City in Arkansas to Baton Rouge in Louisiana, through the middle of January. This includes places like Greenville, Vicksburg and Natchez, Mississippi.
Moderate flooding is also possible south of Baton Rouge to New Orleans during the second half of January.
All this flooding is a result of torrential rainfall in the upper portions of Mississippi River which caused record high water levels. The terrain is very conducive to flooding due a large river and plain terrain. The river takes a long time to rise and fall, following torrential rainfall.
The recovery process might take some time as a blast of cold air might strike soon. This may freeze standing water in areas like northern Louisiana, central Mississippi, Missouri and Illinois.
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