Officials opened the Morganza spillway at 3 p.m. today
Officials opened the Morganza spillway around 3 p.m., letting 10,000 cubic feet of water per second pour through one of the structure's 125 bays.
Water from the first 24-hours of flooding because of the opening is not expected to reach any permanently inhabited communities, according to Col. Ed Fleming, commander of the New Orleans District of the Corps
Fleming said the spillway will operate at only about 25 percent of it's capacity to release 600,000 cubic feet of water per second, but only one bay -- which releases 10,000 cubic feet of water per second -- will be opened today.
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