Harbor full up. Nine twin-screw towboats and at least 100 barges have anchored at the Winona fleeting harbor to wait the Mississippi River shipping shutdown due to flooding. Image: Steve Lunde
Upriver-bound barges temporarily mothballed
WINONA, Minn. — With upstream locks shut down, it’s was any in a storm — err, in this case any port in a flood. Towboats and barges have crammed wall to wall and stem to stern in the Winona fleeting harbor and in Prairie Island backwaters behind the harbor. The tows had been heading upriver, mostly with empty barges for the first grain loads of the season.
Earlier: Flooding: Wildlife Refuge closes boat ramps
Earlier: Sandbags laid at Minnesota City dam
Fleeting harbor aerial view. Even in normal operations, the harbor sometimes is jammed with barges. Now also are barges tucked temporarily in a standing-room-only slough to the north abutting Prairie Island. Image: Army Corps of Engineers