Levees and the illusion of flood control Never ending flood suffering. A recipe
Tag: Flood of 2011
Watch the River Rise!
This is a WWW cam watching the construction site of a casino just south of downtown Baton Rouge:
http://oxblue.com/pro/open/pinnacle/batonrouge
Go back to April 20 to see the river close to normal. Earlier in April the water was high again.
Projected Lower Mississippi Flood Crests
These estimates came out 16 May 2011, and are based on partial opening of the Morganza floodway.
https://biotech.law.lsu.edu/climate/floods/USACE_lowermiss_crest_map.pdf
Inundation Maps – Flood of 2011 on the Lower Mississippi
Lower Mississippi water flows and inundation map – May 11, 2011
Old River Control Structure
This is the gate on the Mississippi/Red River confluence that is the source of the Achafalaya River. At the moment it is flowing at nearly 300,000 CPS. This is as much as Morganza with all the bays open, and three…
Morganza – too late, still too little?
Morganza is slowing being opened. The projected crests downstream have been revised, but as the previous post illustrates, the projected crests still leave very high water from Baton Rouge to New Orleans. We can debate (and will) the Corps decision…
Water Levels in South Lousiana
The state has closed access to the levees all along the Mississippi. This makes getting pictures of the water level more difficult. This was taken on the West Levee opposite the old ferry landing in St. Francisville, LA. This is…
The Mississippi River and Tributaries Project
This is the Army Corps of Engineers explanation of the Mississippi River flood control system and how it would be used to control a flood. It details the the use of the floodways and the river flow levels that will trigger their use.[…]
Mississippi River Flood of 2011
At least as to river heights, the Flood of 2011 may be second or third largest Mississippi River Flood in modern times. Total volume of the flood is hard to compare because the river and the tributaries are more constrained than in the past. Water in a leveed river will be much higher than in a river without levees where it can spread out horizontally.
Projected flood heights – NOAA (Morganza floodway projections)[…]
The Control of Nature – Morganza Spillway
John McPhee has written a fascinating history of the River Control Structure at Morganza. While it is not clear that the Mississippi still wants to go down the Atchafalaya, losing the River Control Structure in a flood would still be a…
Blowing the Mississippi Levee – 2011
This post reviews the ongoing legal issues in the blowing of the levee at Birds Point. While the levee has not been blown since 1937, this was also litigated in 1984.