NASA releases photos of floodway

NASA has released satellite images showing the Birds Point-New Madrid Floodway both before and after the activation of the floodway with the breaching of a levee at Birds Point.

One image shows the area on April 29 before the breach. The other shows the area on May 3. The blue area shows the water that poured into the spillway.

NASA posted the following information with the photos:

This image shows the floodway after activation.

"The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA's Aqua satellite captured these images of the area on May 3, 2011 (top), and April 29, 2011 (bottom). Both images use a combination of visible and infrared light to increase constrast between water and land. Water ranges in color from electric blue to navy. Vegetation is green. Clouds are pale blue-green and cast shadows onto the land surface below.

"Tiny squares of green in the April 29 image show that the floodway consists of farmland. The image from April 29 also shows flooded conditions along the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers. (See an image from 2010 for a comparison.) In the image acquired on May 3, the floodway downstream of Cairo is submerged. The same day that MODIS acquired the image, the Advanced Hydrological Prediction Service of the U.S. National Weather Service reported that the water level for the Ohio River at Cairo had dropped, although it still remained at major flood stage."