Barge traffic on the Mississippi River ground to a halt Monday after an 11-mile stretch near Greenville was closed and vessels were left to wait.

That section of the nation’s busiest waterway had been closed intermittently since Aug. 11, when a vessel ran aground. This morning, the Coast Guard said 103 northbound and southbound vessels are waiting to pass, with 54 going south and 49 headed north, said Coast Guard spokesman Lt. Ryan Gomez.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ Dredge Jadwin, which is owned by the Vicksburg District, has been stationed 2½ miles south of Greenville since Monday, working to vacuum silt and sand from the river bottom and eventually clear a channel deep enough for the vessels to pass.

It was unclear when that section of the river would reopen or how long the river would be restricted, Gomez said.

A low-water inspection trip and meeting of the Mississippi River Commission was set for 9 a.m. Wednesday at the Greenville Bridge Boat Ramp. The routine inspection trip began Aug. 12 and ends Friday in Houma, La.

In Vicksburg, two men were rescued from a sandbar just after midnight this morning about a mile south of LeTourneau Landing, Sheriff Martin Pace said.

Kenny Gurley, 37, and Burton Hynum, 52, both of Vicksburg, were stranded after their 4-horsepower boat floated away from the sandbar, Pace said. Neither man was injured and the boat was recovered by a private towboat company, he said.

Commercially, less cargo moved through the Port of Vicksburg in July due to low water in the harbor. Steel coils, ore and corn made up most of the 28,972 tons unloaded, port officials said Monday. About 32,046 tons moved at the port in June.

Since Aug. 1, the shallow river has kept heavier materials from moving on the river, said Keith Cochran, local supervisor for Kinder Morgan Bulk Terminals, which operates the port.

“You can’t load grain barges right now,” Cochran said. “Same for bulk material.”

The river stage at Vicksburg at midmorning today was 0.7 feet, about the same as Monday. The record low stage locally is minus 7 feet, set in 1940. In Greenville, the river was 7.75 feet, down three-one hundredths of a foot in a day’s time.

Four Corps-owned and private contracted dredges worked to dredge the river between St. Louis and Vicksburg. The Port of Vicksburg is set to be dredged in late September. The Butcher, a contract vessel, is expected to work off the Louisiana riverbank near Lake Providence until mid-September, said Corps spokesman Kavanaugh Breazeale. Another, the Hurley, owned by the Memphis District, dredged north of downtown Memphis late Monday.

Severe drought across more than 60 percent of the country has the river threatening records, though the Corps and weather forecasters have said records will survive the extreme dry spell.

In 1988, a stretch of river near Greenville closed due to low water levels caused by severe drought. The river hit a record low on the Memphis gauge that year, at minus 10.7 feet. The river was minus 8.7 feet in Memphis this morning, down two-tenths since Monday. A “minus” reading does not mean the river is dried up, as it’s simply a measurement of how the river gauge is designed.

Forecasts through mid-September by the National Weather Service River Forecast Center showed a minus 0.6-foot stage in Vicksburg and minus 9.9 feet in Memphis. The next forecast will be issued Wednesday.