Louisiana spillway opened to relieve Mississippi River, spare cities from flooding [protect Orleans]

Los Angeles Times ^ | 5-14-11 | By Tina Susman, Los Angeles Times

[Grams A]

I didn’t know that about Wolcott. I grew up on a 40 acre farm west of Bethel on Leavenworth Road and Highway 5 which I think is now a very small part of the new race track. Probably the only person living in Texas who knows where Wolcott, Kansas is/was. Nice to hear about it.

[cajungirl]

You are so wrong. This was not political at all.

[cajungirl]

You are so wrong. This was not political at all.

[okie01]

Probably the only person living in Texas who knows where Wolcott, Kansas is/was.

Makes two of us. My daughter went to school in Atchison.

[reformedliberal]

Some of my husband’s sailing friends are Cajuns. They eat everything and will always post and email the pictures of the plates and loaded tables at their BBQs to prove it.

It is all endangered wildlife, down there, and I say that with great affection as a cook. I pity any environmentalist who has to confront a Cajun over endangered species. They are likely to have it served to them for lunch.

[Tupelo]

EVERYTHING the federal government does is political and calulated to get the party in power the maximum votes. Always has been and always will be.

[LoneRangerMassachusetts]

Of course it does, but who’s fault is it that they live in a flood plain?

Was it a flood plain before the USACE built levees around NO?

[glorgau]

...for only the second time in nearly 40 years...

Great place to get a 30 year mortgage. It's tough luck, but nobody should be surprised.

[abb]

Was it a flood plain before the USACE built levees around NO?

Very much so. Almost ALL of South Louisiana is a flood plain and has flooded in the past, either from river flooding, hurricane storm surge, or flooding rain.

[abb]

Finally found a decent map that depicts the several courses that the Lower Mississippi River has taken over the past several thousand years. At one time, the river flowed down what is now called Bayou Teche, near Lafayette. Another time it flowed via Bayou Lafourche and entered the Gulf around where Barataria Bay is now. Fascinating stuff!

[Jimmy Valentine]

The Mississippi at Cairo is relatively narrow, so the high volume of water going through there is both high and very fast.

Cairo as a town hs fallen on hard times long ago.

I would have left the flood wals alone.

The farmland flooded out will take an extended period to recover.

[bboop]

I was thinking of the farmland area in eastern Washington — the farms were rich along the river, but you couldn’t get insurance. Not all silt is the same? Who knew.

[centurion316]

Photobucket won’t post your map, they say you’ve exceeded your bandwidth allocation. Can you post a link?

[CPT Clay]

the Mississippi River would have changed course and followed the route of the present-day Atachafalaya

Geologically speaking, it will again flow down the Atachafalaya.
How arrogant of us to believe that we can tame mother nature for so long.

[abb]

Try here.

http://i203.photobucket.com/albums/aa222/Barefootontherocks/20110506MsDeltas.jpg

Also, some more history here.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mississippi_River_Delta

http://disc.gsfc.nasa.gov/geomorphology/GEO_5/GEO_PLATE_D-1.shtml

[abb]

Actually, creation of the modern-day Atchafalaya can be “blamed” on Captain Henry Miller Shreve.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Miller_Shreve

He engineered Shreve’s Cutoff in 1831. See here all about that.

http://sites.google.com/site/indigenouscultures/vulnerable-deltas/mississippi-delta/the-meandering-mississippi

The Natural History of the Meandering Mississippi

http://www.newyorker.com/archive/1987/02/23/1987_02_23_039_TNY_CARDS_000347146?currentPage=all

ATCHAFALAYA

http://digitool.library.colostate.edu///exlibris/dtl/d3_1/apache_media/L2V4bGlicmlzL2R0bC9kM18xL2FwYWNoZV9tZWRpYS8xMjU5NA==.pdf

Possible Capture of the Mississippi by the Atchafalaya River

[abb]

http://www.wwltv.com/news/Crews-open-two-more-bays-at-Morganza-121857539.html

Crews open two more bays at Morganza
by WWLTV.com

Posted on May 15, 2011 at 10:51 AM
Updated today at 11:14 AM

Michael Luke / Eyewitness News

MORGANZA SPILLWAY, La. – Two more massive steel bays at the Morganza spillway were opened Sunday morning to ease pressure on the Mississippi River levees in south Louisiana, sending more water flowing into and further flooding the Atchafalaya Basin.

Around 9 a.m., crews from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers opened two more of the multi-ton gates, a day after opening two bays, bringing the total of four at the spillway 310 miles from New Orleans.

With the last opening in 1973, the Morganza spillway is slowly being opened by the corps for only the second time since it was built in 1954 in an effort to stop the bulging Mississippi River from topping floodwalls and levees south of the spillway.

Crews opened the Morganza to spare large cities riverfront like Baton Rouge and New Orleans.

“There is a tremendous amount of decisions that get up to this point,” said Maj. General Michael Walsh, before the first bay of the spillway was opened on Saturday.

Hundreds of scientists and engineers studied the weather and levee conditions along the river, which has seen overtopping near Greenville, Miss. on Friday before the call was made by Mississippi River District Commander Col. Ed Fleming to open the Morganza, said Walsh.

[muawiyah]

No, not even "on the average". A 500 year flood is one which is expected to be no higher than that in a 500 year period ~ but it could do that EVERY SINGLE DAY for the entire 500 years.

Same with a 100 year flood, or a 10 year flood.

Then there's the 3,780 foot flood ~ that happens every time a serious meteor hits the Atlantic between Africa/WesternAsia and North America.

They're saying the last time there was a big meteor tsunami in the Atlantic it topped the Appalachians and came down in the Ohio drainage basin. That was about 30 million years back.

[muawiyah]

There’s a stream that flows into Lake Itasca. It has a name. It starts there!

[muawiyah]

Some millions of years ago the Gulf of Mexico extended all the way up to Southern Indiana and Southern Illinois.

Through time the basin filled up with silt, loam AND debris from the Appalachians as they were eroded just to the East.

Gradually the basin filled up all the way to Louisiana. But it's a flood plain the whole way!