Mississippi closure at Natchez blocking grain barges

Barges moving grain from Midwest farms were stopped on their way to the Gulf of Mexico when the Coast Guard closed the flooded Mississippi River at the port of Natchez, Miss., trying to avoid increasing pressure on already strained levees, the Associated Press reported.

There was no word on when the river would reopen, the AP story said, although port officials said it could cost the U.S. economy hundreds of millions of dollars per day.