The Mighty Mississippi was within about an inch of its official flood stage this morning and still expected to ease up 2.6 more feet before cresting a week from today.

The high water, which may or may not have caused a grain tow to strike the U.S. 80 bridge Wednesday, will, however, keep a barge in that tow from being retrieved anytime soon.

“We’re going to have to wait until the river crests and comes down a little,” said Hugh Smith, project manager for Vicksburg-based Big River Ship Builders & Salvage, the firm likely to be hired for the job. “It’s just not safe to attempt salvaging it in high waters if you don’t have to.”

Today’s Vicksburg gauge reading was 42.9 feet at 7 a.m., up 0.4 foot from Thursday. The official flood stage, meaning banks are full, is 43 feet. The crest forecast remains at 45.5 feet on April 4.

The river was also up 0.4 foot at Memphis this morning, but stages farther north were declining rapidly.

The MV Keith Darling was pushing 30 barges downstream when the two struck Pier 4, scattering 10 and sinking one. No one was injured in the accident, and the Interstate 20 bridge immediately south of the U.S. 80 bridge was not struck.

Master Chief Mike Martin of the U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Kickapoo said the sunken barge is not posing a navigation hazard, so moving it is not an emergency.

“That’s going to be a key issue in determining when the barge will come up,” Smith said. “It’s all relative to expense. As long as it doesn’t pose a hazard to navigation and you don’t have the towing industry as a whole raising hell with the Coast Guard to get that barge out of there, then we’re going to have time to wait until conditions are safe to pull it out.”

Big River is also waiting to raise four other barges north of Vicksburg sunken in the past few weeks due to high water, Smith said.

The barge that sank here Wednesday is under about 30 feet under water on the east side of the river near Rainbow Casino.

Overall shipping on the river has been reduced by an estimated 25 percent since waters began to reach high levels a week ago, Martin said.

At 45.5 feet, river and backwater flooding in the area is limited to some farm fields, a very few homes and campgrounds. Some roads are inundated and impassable.

AEP River Operations, which owns and operates the towboat MV Keith Darling, is responsible for having the sunken barge salvaged, under regulation by the U.S. Coast Guard. Big River has not officially been contracted to do the salvaging, but Smith said “there’s a real good chance we will be.”

“We have a long-standing and on-going relationship with AEP, and there’s not a lot of salvers on the river system,” he said. “There’s one based in the upper Ohio River and one in the upper Mississippi (River). We work from St. Louis down to New Orleans.”

A formal investigation to determine the cause of the accident and total losses has been launched by AEP River Operations.

“It’s pretty early in the investigation, and these things usually take a period of weeks to come up with definitive answers,” said Mark Carr, spokesman for Chesterfield, Mo.-based AEP River Operations.

Carr said AEP River Operations has been dealing with high waters in its operations throughout the country over the past few weeks, and had taken high river levels at Vicksburg into account when pushing barges past the city.

“We were being very cautious. Our business is active from Pittsburgh to Chicago, all the way down to the Gulf of Mexico and over into Texas, and so high water has been impacting all of our northern territories,” he said.

Under normal river conditions, Carr said the tow would have been pushing 40 barges, but self-limited to 30. High waters mean swift, meandering currents and more difficult steering.

Carr said the barges were filled with corn and being shipped for Minneapolis, Minn.-based Cargill, Inc.

Engineers have OK’d the U.S. 80 bridge for safety, but a fouled instrument within the struck pier still has Herman Smith, bridge superintendent, steamed. The pendulum was apparently fouled during a March 5 rescue exercise, he said, and must be reset.

“We can’t use it as a determining factor,” Smith said. “The pendulum was an extremely important measuring device. They bent it real bad.”

Vicksburg Fire Chief Keith Rogers said as many as 40 people were on the pier at one time or another during the exercise, including members of the 47th Civil Support Team, the Vicksburg and Ridgeland Fire Departments and the Mississippi State Fire Academy.

“I just don’t know how that could have gotten bent,” Smith said, “especially when I told them, ‘Don’t touch it, don’t even get close to it because it’s a measuring device and it can’t be moved.'”

Mississippi RiverCREST FORECAST45.5 feet on April 4TODAY’S STAGE:42.9 feetROSE:0.4 footFLOOD STAGE:43 feetA flood warning is in effect in Vicksburg. Roads and streets already under water or expected to flood include Ford Road, Hutson Street (200 block), Pittman Road (400 block), Williams Street, Hardin Road, Jackson Lane, Browns Alley, Railroad Alley, Eva Street, Young Alley, Round Alley, Water Well Road, Randle Street, Rankin Alley, Chickasaw Road (80 block and greater), Chickasaw Lane (outside city), Chickasaw Drive (outside city), Thompson Lake Road, Kings Crossing (100 block and greater), Falk Steel Road (200 block, even numbered addresses)Updated river forecasts are on the Internet at www.srh.noaa.gov/lmrfcResidents with questions or concerns may call the City of Vicksburg Emergency Management Action Line at 601-636-3411Mississippi RiverPast high readingsYearDateGauge1973May 1351.61974Feb. 944.21975April 1248.01976March 732.41977April 2132.41978April 939.81979April 2647.91980April 1440.51981June 1432.51982Dec. 1939.71983May 2749.31984May 2545.81985March 1842.21986Oct. 2035.11987March 1336.51988Jan. 636.41989March 841.01990June 842.81991Jan. 2044.41992Dec. 3134.41993May 1843.61994May 346.01995June 1247.01996June 143.61997March 2249.11998May 1443.61999Feb. 1341.72000March 629.32001March 839.92002June 345.42003May 2943.02004Dec. 2039.32005Jan. 3144.52006March 2731.62007Jan. 2637.8Source: U.S. Army Corps of Engineers