THE MISSISSIPPI FLOODGATES OPEN, Releasing 12 Million Gallons Per Second Onto Louisiana Farmland

Business Insider ^ | 05/16/2011 | Leah Goldman

[SeekAndFind]

The Army Corps. opened the Morganza spillway on the Mississippi River in Louisiana on Saturday forcing tons of water and covering more than 100 acres of dry land with a foot of water within 30 minutes.

The flood gates were opened to shift the flow of the swollen river away from the numerous oil refineries and chemical plants in Baton Rouge and New Orleans. While the flood waters will move away from the more densely populated area, the opening of the gates could affect 25,000 people, 11,000 structures, and acres of farmland.

This is the first time the Morganza spillway has been opened since 1973. Residents have been evacuated.

[SeekAndFind]

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[subterfuge]

LA is now sacred. Protect at all costs.

[balch3]

The headline implies that this is an agricultural center, which is misleading. There are some farming operations in the basin, and a few small towns (which are protected by ring levees.) That anyone is being flooded is tragic. But it is mostly swampland.

[balch3]

1. Both these areas ARE in Louisiana, so I don’t know what point you’re trying to make.

2. Letting the area between Baton Rouge and New Orleans flood would be an economic catastrophe for the United States. Not doing anything would cost you, yes you, in more ways than you can imagine.

3. I don’t know why I even bother with these threads. People are going to believe what they want to believe, the facts be damned.

[blackdog]

Carville had better move all his family to higher ground. Here in Memphis we’re getting snakes all over places they normally are not.

[Emperor Palpatine]

Why are small towns and farmers being sacrificed for new Orleans?

Is it because N.O. is Ray Nagin’s “Chocolate City” full of Holder’s people where the festering crime-ridden sore of the Ninth Ward must be preserved?

Naawwww....couldn’t be that, I’m sure....</sarc>

[jwparkerjr]

Seems like I learned years ago, mid-50’s, that flooding from the Mississippi River was an important part of the fertility of the farmlands for hundreds of miles along both sides of the river. I know that was before there were so many cities there too, but it still seems some of the land will benefit from the flooding. Not enough to overcome the damage that will be done to homes, businesses, farms, etc.

[Vigilanteman]

100 acres?

That's less than 1/6th of a square mile. I would bet they mean over 100 square miles. It would be nice if these reporters would get their facts straight before publishing.

[Rebelbase]

Yep. Some posters would rather see all the refineries and petro chem plants along the Mississippi destroyed if it meant taking New Orleans with it.

[topher]

The Atchafalaya Basin is a very primitive area, for the most part.

It took a while in the 1970's to complete Interstate 10 across this swamp.

Anyone who has ever driven the stretch from Lafayette to Baton Rouge knows they are going to be traveling about 30 miles on a continuous bridge over the swamp.

Now there is some natural gas and oil production in the basin.

And there is some farmland.

But it has been an area that is flooded when the Mississippi threatens to flood Baton Rouge and New Orleans.

The Atchafalaya River goes near Morgan City -- so this city is in danger of some flooding -- depending on how long and how much water is released.

Releasing sooner is better than later.

It is possible to stop some of the release and let the Atchafalaya Basin water start flowing to the Gulf, and then release some water.

What really needs to be done is set up some lakes along the Mississippi that water can be diverted into when there is a significant Spring thaw.

There are Western US Cities that would love the prospect of getting millions of acres of water.

The real cost of such an effort is the energy to pump the water -- in some cases to higher elevations to get them to Western Destinations.

Of course, when the Dimwit Democrats and Obama flushed a trillion dollars down the toilet on the stimulus, they realized this, and projected for the future.

Oh, I forget, they are a bunch DIMWITS

Thinking in not their pay grade.

[Talisker]

No levees have failed. They are performing up to specs. They are holding back floodwaters.

The governments solution? Open them up and destroy massive areas of towns and farmlands, in the name of “safety.”

And you wonder how the same government can pass Obamacare in the name of providing medical care?

Easy - they only have one solution for anything that works.

Kill it.

[Emperor Palpatine]

"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. These West Point engineers cannot succeed in caging the beast. They imagine that they can fetter and handcuff that river and boss him. They might as well bully the comets in their courses and undertake to make them behave, as try to bully the Mississippi into right and reasonable conduct."

-Mark Twain

[Graneros]

There’s nothing wrong with what the reporter said. He doesn’t mean that only 100 acres will be flooded. He is simply stating that within 30 minutes 100 acres was flooded with a foot of water. Just showing the speed with which the flooding is taking place.

[Wonder Warthog]

"Why are small towns and farmers being sacrificed for new Orleans?"

They aren't. The headline and the story are totally bogus. There are few to no real farms in the area that will be flooded. There is indeed "land that is farmed", but it is farmed as "rental land" by large farmers whose "home farms" are NOT in the floodway. All the "small towns" are surrounded by what are called "ring levees", and are safe. There "are" a few subdivisions that have been developed outside those levees, but anybody who bought or built there knew up front what the dangers were.

This is virtually nothing to do with the "Chocolate City". This has to do with the Port of New Orleans and hundreds of industrial plants in and between Baton Rouge and New Orleans, including a large portion of the country's oil refining capability. If THAT floods, we'll ALL be damned sorry.

Personal note. I'm from the area. The Morganza Floodway and Old River structures were built when I was in elementary school, and I watched them being built. When it was first used in 1973, I was in college, and drove over the Morganza control structure several times on my way home for weekends (and hundreds, if not thousands of times, when it was "not" open). The head engineer of the project was a friend of the family, and he retired there.

[Red Badger]

Here in Memphis we’re getting snakes all over places they normally are not.

I thought they were all on the city council...........

[topher]

The water is going into the Atchafalaya Basin

This swamp is so large that it takes a 18+ mile stretch of Interstate 10 bridge just to cross part of it.

It can hold quite a bit of water, but homes in the swamp will be flooded...

[topher]

The mayor of New Orleans is now Mary Landrieu’s brother Mitch. All in the family. Mitch and Mary’s dad Moon was the mayor in the 1980’s and 1990’s.

[pallis]

God bless and protect everyone concerned. I’ll leave this one up to the people who know what they are doing and why.

[subterfuge]

Sorry I annoyed you. Wasn’t necessarily commenting on this particular action being taken. It just seems like the federal government (taxpayer) is going to forever be responsible for protecting a well populated area that just happens to be under sea-level.

I read another article today about the planned flooding where someone said ‘Bush did nothing about NOLA/Katrina’ and that “neither president did,” whatever that meant.

When the place you live floods, one moves, I would think.

[Wonder Warthog]

"No levees have failed. They are performing up to specs. They are holding back floodwaters."

If the floodways were NOT opened, the levees WOULD fail. Period. And as a result, we would have a Depression like you would NOT believe.

"The governments solution? Open them up and destroy massive areas of towns and farmlands, in the name of “safety.”"

See post 14, and don't believe everything the media reports.