Posted on 05/14/2011 1:01:52 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
The Morganza floodway, a safety valve on the Mississippi River that allows water to flow into low lying areas north of major cities, is set to be opened today unleashing a wall of water on the region.
The water flow will impact at least 2,500 people, and potentially as many as 22,500, according to Bloomberg. From Bloomberg:
The opening of Louisiana’s Morganza floodway today may send enough water to fill a football field 10 feet deep every second across the heart of Cajun country, eventually filling an area almost as large as Connecticut.
Major General Michael Walsh, president of the Mississippi River Commission, has told Col. Edward Fleming to open the spillway as soon as the river’s flow reaches 1.5 million cubic feet per second at Louisiana’s Red River Landing, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers said in a statement.
The flood is already impacting the area around Memphis, and farmland there is expected to be underwater through the summer. When the floodgate is opened, 15,000 acres of farmland will be flooded in Louisiana as well.
The opening of the Morganza floodway will also have an impact on oil and gas production in the region, as several refineries operate in affected areas.
(Excerpt) Read more at businessinsider.com ...
Thanks much for the link/info.
You inverted my comment.
The Egyptians have prospered for millennia farming rich soils created by Nile floods. I see no problem with farming the blackest soil in the world so long as the farmers take the sole risk of financial damages from flooding and don't beg for federal bail-outs. Maybe they should self-insure with a "flood tax" in the profitable fat years to offset their inevitable flood losses.
CT is 5009 square miles.
Links at Ft Belvoir? Where did that thought come from?
I think to participate in the "Farm Program" a farmer is required to purchase crop insurance (which may be federally subsidized). It pays out a percentage of the predicted yield based on records for previous years and according to how much insurance the farmer wants to buy. Since the yield is what is insured, I don't think they get anything if no crop is planted. Gov. Jindal petitioned to have opening of the flood gates declared a "natural disaster", probably since the insurance only pays out for natural disasters.
Don't know what happens when the insurance payouts are more that the insurers take in.
“Links at Ft Belvoir? Where did that thought come from?”
It comes from our esteemed POTUS playing golf there virtually every weekend, despite other parts of the US facing utter devastation, that’s where it comes from !
Been reading Mark Twain? ;o)
He said the same - back in the 1800's - when they first started trying to tame the " "Mighty Mississip."
"One who knows the Mississippi," Twain said, "will promptly aver — not aloud, but to himself — that ten thousand River Commissions, with the mines of the world at their back cannot tame that lawless stream, cannot curb it or confine it, cannot say to it, Go here, or Go there, and make it obey; cannot save a shore which it has sentenced; cannot bar its path with an obstruction which it will not tear down, dance over, and laugh at."
Because, it is one of the biggest ports and 20% of our refining capacity. Take out NOLA with that levee breaking and you will be paying $8.00 a gallon for gas and not for a couple weeks, but for at least a year.
I realize that they are only some of the flow, but what if they held the water back in South Dakota on the Missouri, and there are dams holding back water in Iowa on tributaries that feed the Mississippi. Would that have made much of a difference? What if they raised the Mississippi right up to flood stage all the way north and just kept it there. Or is all that a "drop in the bucket" based on what is entering the Mississippi further south?
In any case, it sucks for somebody.
For the same reason they are allowed to build a city below sea level.
The people down in South Louisiana live in area that was designed to be flooded. The people in New Orleans live in a city that was built to stay dry.
Ha. Good one. And a good and appropriate recollection!
Blame the French for that. It was already there when Jefferson made that little Purchase.
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