2011 Mississippi River Spring Floods

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Water from the inflated Mississippi River gushed through a floodgate Saturday for the first time in nearly four decades and headed toward thousands of homes and farmland in the Cajun countryside, threatening to slowly submerge the land under water up to 25 ...

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"But if a bear gets confused and winds up on the 50-yard-line of the (University of Louisiana at Lafayette) stadium, we're going to get him." Barham said his agents will trap and relocate any bears that encroach on heavily populated areas. "We're going to ...

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[CajunRed]

In reality, in addition to fueling the country and helping to feed it...we also serve as its drainage ditch.

igeaux.mobi

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How much water is it really? The Army Corps of Engineers opened one of the Morganza spillway's 125 bays at 3 p.m. this afternoon. One bay releases 10,000 cubic feet of water per second. Col. Ed Fleming, commander of the New Orleans District of the Corps ...

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(AP) — Phones at the police department in the little southern Louisiana town of Krotz Springs rang nonstop ... space in Baton Rouge and southwest to a family-owned warehouse in Lafayette. She was keeping a bed and a television in place at the tan ...

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Cajuns are descendants of French-speakers who fled Acadia, what is now Canada’s Maritime provinces, as the British took control in the 18th century. In the nearby community of Stephensville, rows of sandbags were piled up outside nearly every home.

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[cjr3888]

_ In reality, in addition to fueling the country and helping to feed it...we also serve as its drainage ditch.

igeaux.mobi _

That's a comment we can all agree on.

[Bandwagon King]

_ That's a comment we can all agree on. _

I want to tip my cap to the Corp of Engineers. I have been up & down the lower Atchafalaya the past couple of weeks. I have been to the Calumet Cut at the Teche locks. I have been to Butte Larose, Baton Rouge, & the Morganza spillway. There are two things I'm now pretty sure of.

One is someone is going to lose over the next three weeks. The other is the Corps is going to get the blame for it. The truth is the Corps did what they had to do because they had to do it. There was no other choice. I have heard people say they should have been opening flood gates & draining water for weeks. This would have been a terrible move. This would have already filled the emergency bath tub known as the Morganza floodway instead of forcing jillions of gallons into the GOM the way it should have gone. By them allowing the levees to take as much water as possible before opening up the spillway, they may have saved all of South Louisiana from total destruction.

The object of the game as I see it is to keep the lower Mississippi in its banks & not allow it to make its own new flow path to the GOM. If the river were to overrun its banks, let's say around Donaldsonville, It would most likely flood everything between Belle Chase & Morgan City La. with about 7' of water. This would displace several hundred thousand residents. If the Mississippi overruns it's banks in Baton Rouge it will displace up to half a million residents in Baton Rouge into Gonzales.

I now see why the Corps waited. With the river at it's present level, they can divert the water down the spillway & maintain the levee system they have. They have forced the most water possible to the GOM first allowing the existing river sytem to handle what it could, then using the Bonnie Carrie system to carry what it could, & finally the Morganza is going to do it's job.

I am still very concerned for the people of Morgan City & the Patterson area, because I believe they will be put to the biggest test of anyone in about 10 days. I don't think a lot of them understand what danger they could be in & by the time they find out it could be too late for a normal standard evacuation by automobile.

I have seen the people in Butte Larose working to remove all their belongings, Many of them leaving their homes. I hope the best for you, & I hope you are the ones mad at the corps for scaring the bejesus out of everyone without you guys losing anything. I think in the end though, you will be glad you paid heed. This was an act of God handled by the best man could handle it.

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In a history out Wednesday that traces the true complexity of this multi-parish area of south Louisiana, scholar Brasseaux takes ... "Lizzie Walks on the Wild Side") does a jig, lizard-style. Lafayette storyteller and author Smith will read from the ...

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Louisiana Agriculture and Forestry Commissioner Mike Strain ... to eight inches of air space between them and the water back in 73,” said Davis, 58, from Lafayette. “I have been coming out here all my life and it’s coming up,” Davis said as he ...

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