As Floodwaters Drop, Part Of Louisiana Spillway Shut

With Mississippi River levels dropping at a key gauge in Louisiana, the Army Corps of Engineers said Wednesday it has closed three bays of the Morganza spillway.

The spillway northwest of Baton Rouge was opened May 14 to ease pressure on levees at Baton Rouge and New Orleans by diverting some of the Mississippi's flow into the Atchafalaya River, where it would threaten less-populated communities.

The corps said one Morganza bay was closed on Tuesday and two more on Wednesday. That leaves 14 of its 125 bays open.

The corps said it's too early to say when more bays would be closed. However, with the Mississippi's crest already past the Morganza structure, the flow reduction is good news downstream on the Atchafalaya, especially for Morgan City where the river is expected to crest on Monday.

This, I'm hoping, will be the biggest preparation for a non-event than ever before.

- Terrebonne Parish President Michel Claudet said of local flood preparations

Flood fears already were easing somewhat along the Atchafalaya, where earlier warnings that inhabited areas could be inundated with as much as 28 feet of water had not materialized as of Wednesday.

At Morgan City, a hub of seafood and oil industry activity near the coast, a 24-foot floodwall was doing its job, Mayor Tim Matte said. Better yet, backwater flooding from a complex network of bayous, lakes and canals was not materializing. "We really were concerned that we would see a rise in Lake Palourde and we would see that backwater flooding," Matte said in a telephone interview. "The lake has actually dropped."

In neighboring Terrebonne Parish, Parish President Michel Claudet said flood controls, including levee fortifications and the sinking of a barge to block flow through a key bayou had prevented flooding. But he also credited a drought that has enabled the ground to soak up water while keeping backwater flooding to a minimum. "This, I'm hoping, will be the biggest preparation for a non-event than ever before," he said.

Water was creeping over roads and into remote camps near Butte Larose west of Baton Rouge, where a mandatory evacuation was ordered Tuesday, said Capt. Ginny Higgins, spokeswoman for the St. Martin Parish Sheriff's Office. Buildings in the town of about 650 were likely to take on water, she said. But some buildings are raised, "so it's not going to be an issue with them," Higgins said.

That the threat appeared to be easing did not mean there were no problems. There was the stress of the anticipated flood and the evacuations, Higgins noted. "I know people are frustrated," she said.

The high Atchafalaya meant a big expense and loss of business for Robert Conner. He had to move freezers and much of his stock out of his seafood processing business, Craws `n' Claws, which by necessity operates on the watery side of Morgan City's towering flood wall and is now inundated. Ordinarily he processes fish, crabs and crawfish unloaded at the dock. Now, operating inland, he said he is only selling live crawfish, and he estimated lost revenue will total in the hundreds of thousands of dollars by the time he can return, clean up and get back to full operation.

The Mississippi and the Atchafalaya rivers are expected to stay high for weeks. That means constant patrols of the Mississippi River levees from the Arkansas line to the Gulf will continue.

The Morganza was the second spillway to be opened to ease flood pressures in Louisiana.. The Bonnet Carre spillway, near New Orleans, opened in early May, sending a torrent of Mississippi water into brackish Lake Pontchartrain. It remained open Wednesday.

New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu, who earlier this month acknowledged the problems opening the Morganza would pose for many west of New Orleans, announced Wednesday that the city and the nonprofit Greater New Orleans Foundation were establishing a charity, the NOLA Pay It Forward fund, to aid Mississippi River flood victims, including those affected by the spillway opening.

On Wednesday, the corps said it decided to close three bays at Morganza after the river's flow dropped at Red River Landing. The amount of water flowing though Morganza was never as high as the corps first predicted.

Initial estimates were that the opening would unleash 300,000 cubic feet per second into the Atchafalaya basin. On Wednesday, the corps said its latest computations indicated the flow had been 172,000 cfs, reduced to 140,000 with the closing of three bays.

Source: http://www.npr.org/2011/05/26/136674291/as-floodwaters-drop-part-of-louisiana-spillway-shut?ft=1&f=1003

j crew beagle abu dhabi 17 day diet shuttle launch wtf endeavour