The Mighty Mississip. Hypnotic just to watch ... how many tons of water per second glide past in a show of astonishing power. My wife reported the '93 flood up near her home place in Missouri near the Iowa border for an East Coast paper where she worked and was nearly be-headed when the power boat in which she was riding sped under low-hanging power lines too fast. Two days later, she was back out in it with her throat stitched up and her neck and head all bruised. The ER doc, when told she was born there, said, you won't die here, not today.