Astounding Mississippi River Levels in August

My first outing was into the city and down to the Mississippi River Levee to take some photos of the water .  Several news reports talked about how the river was going down.  But I wanted to see it for myself.

Here is the river at peak levels in June 2019.

Here are some River Levels in May 2019:  You can see there are only a few steps showing.

Here are some photos in April 2019, the walk to the USS Kidd, the Paperclip where the riverboats dock and the cradle that holds the USS Kidd in place.  The Kidd floats within that cradle so it doesnt' get swamped with high water.  

And here is the water level in the Mississippi River today in August 2019.  You can see the steps and the letters and the Batture.  The Batture is the area between the water and the levee.  According to law, the batture can be owned by private ownership.  According to Louisiana Civil Code: 

The Mississippi River is a naturally navigable water way (in this case river or stream). Thus the banks (between the high water mark and the low water mark) of naturally navigable rivers or streams are private property subject to public use. Public use boils down to basic economic uses, ex. drying nets, tying off, etc. However recreational uses are not typically considered public use, ex. recreational fishing. 

 Here is the full height of the levee steps, they were powerwashing the river silt off the steps and the Paperclip Dock.

and what you see below is the walkway to the USS Kidd.  Check out the earlier photos to see the level of water just below the actual walkway where now you can see the batture land.