Project Flood and the Mississippi River Flood control design:
“A 100 year flood” doesn’t mean what you seem to think it means.
The floods of 1935 and 1947 rivaled 1927 for river stage.
What we see now is driven by physical changes to the land drained by the river as well as to the river itself, some (most?) man made. This process has been going on at an accelerated rate since long before we burned carbon.
FYI
I'm not aware of any official tours being conducted during high river stages, maybe but I doubt it. If you just want to see the areas at high river stages, drive through Morganza on Hwy 1, over the Morganza Control Structure, and continue north on Hwy 1, then turn right on Hwy 15 which will take you to the Old River Complex. As long as traffic is still being allowed over the Low Sill structure you will be able to get an idea of how mighty the Mississippi is. Black Hawk Plantation is a few miles north of the ORCS's which is the upstream limit of the USACE New Orleans District authority. From there Vicksburg District takes over.
Even more scary than that is to stand on top of the Miss River levee near White Castle or Donaldsonville, where the river alignment changes drastically in those curves, it makes the hair stand up on the back of your neck to see that water coming at you when it's within 3-5 feet of the levee crown. Understand I'm not suggesting anyone access the levee crown to see that. Levee crown access is already restricted.
No one knows what disaster awaits us or when. I would be more worried about a Miss R levee failure below Baton Rouge more specifically than I am about one of the Old River structures failing. If a structure fails, the uncontrolled flow, as much of a disaster as that would be, would still be confined within the levees of the floodways. If a Miss R levee fails we would be confronted with uncontrolled/uncontained/sheet flow that IMO would be the worst possible situation.
FYI: I have been retired from USACE for more than 10 years now so my memory doesn't always serve me well, but as best I recall the Morgan City/Berwick areas are protected to approximately elevation 20 or 22 feet.
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