As the remnants of Hurricane Ivan moved north over the United States, it dumped torrential rain in southeastern and mid-Atlantic states, triggering inland flooding. Major rivers, including the Ohio, Susquehanna, and Deleware Rivers, pushed over their banks and forced evacuations. Muddy run-off has colored the rivers around the Chesapeake Bay a dirty brown in this true-color image, acquired by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra satellite on September 21, 2004. By this time, the floods had largely subsided, but evidence of flooding remains in this image. The top third of the Chesapeake Bay, normally clear and dark, is now mud colored as sediment-laden flood water drains into the bay. The Susquehanna River flows down from the top left corner of the image into the bay, and the Delaware is visible under the clouds coming out of the top right corner.
NASA image created by Jesse Allen, Earth Observatory from data provided courtesy of the MODIS Rapid Response team.
