Intense drought conditions are causing water levels of the 2,300-mile-long Mississippi River to drop. In the process, some hidden mysteries are being uncovered.
“Because these water levels are so low that we knew it was only a short matter of time before human remains were found,” Foster told the news station.
According toCNN, the county’s medical examiner said the remains include a lower jawbone, rib bones and other unidentified bone fragments. The outlet said investigators plan to take DNA samples from the bones to compare to cases involving missing persons.
Drought In Mississippi River Basin.Scott Olson/Getty
Outside of Foster’s disturbing discovery, a ferry thought to have sunk in the river sometime during the late 1800s to early 1900s has emerged in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, according to theAssociated Press.
Louisiana state archeologist Chip McGimsey believes the boat may be the wreck of the Brookhill Ferry, which carried passengers and horse carriages across the river and sank during a storm in 1915.
“Eventually the river will come back up and (the ship) will go back underwater,” McGimsey told the AP. “That’s part of the reason for making the big effort to document it this time — cause she may not be there the next time.”
Scott Olson/Getty
Per the AP, the Mississippi River’s water levels, which are already threatening to reach record lows, are expected to decrease even further in the coming weeks, threatening to impact jobs and economic activity.
In April, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration predicted that a megadrought that had persisted in the western part of the United States would move east, affecting areas such as the Great Plains, perABC News.
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Now, about 82 percent of the continental U.S. is currently experiencing conditions between"abnormally dry" and “exceptional drought,“ABC News reported, citing the U.S. Drought Monitor.
“It’s sort of a grim situation,” Kent Winter, a wheat farmer in Kansas, toldReuters.
Another Kansas farmer, Martin Kerschen, told the outlet that many of them can only hope for a turn of the tides.
“No farmer wants to see his ground blowing,” he said. “So you go ahead and plant wheat, and hope like heck you get it up before winter comes.”
source: people.com
