Documenting the stages and streamflows associated with the 2011 activation of the New Madrid Floodway, Missouri

The U.S. Geological Survey initiated a substantial effort in the summer of 2011 to measure and document the record-setting floods of the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers, including the reach in and near the New Madrid Floodway. The activation of the floodway, which had not occurred since 1937, provided a rare opportunity to collect a unique dataset describing a flood wave downstream from a levee breach as well as the flow through a large floodway. A total of 42 submersible pressure transducers collected time series of water levels while crews collected hundreds of depth, velocity, and streamflow measurements at selected locations in and near the floodway throughout the period from late April to late June. These data are presented in this chapter.