2011 Mississippi River Spring Floods

[biged05]

I've read rising tide...I'll add the other to my list to read

igeaux.mobi

[Bandwagon King]

_ Helmut and Cajunred are right. Everything will come this way anyway. A quote from our Col. that I like was "If it a drop of rain falls in New York it passes here, if it a drop of rain falls in Montana, it passes here." This is how I think of it. The system is designed to pass as much water to the Gulf as fast as possible. Let's say you put more retention basins like New Madrid, and the Atch. Basin up north. All that will do will hold the water up there longer. Keep in mind how long it takes for the water to get down here. Now lets say the Valley gets the rain that's causing this flood, and we store some of that water somewhere up there. Then there's a break in the weather and about a month later a few bad systems go through the valley again. Even more rain! The storage areas start to get full and the Rivers are still full. And the this happens 2 or 3 times in a row. Now you have rain water stored up north that could have been passed down the river, and more keeps coming and there's no where for it to go. Now that has the potential to cause one hell of a problem!!
The other thing to think of is the economics. The land in the basin was paid for by the Gov. for this purpose then given back to the people to do what they wanted, but with the understanding that this could happen. No telling how much that would cost today, not to mention all the fights you'd have to deal with about where to put it and people not wanting to give up their land. _

I wonder when this is all over if it would be possible to meet with someone in the corps & possibly talk about design changes in the way the Mississippi & the Atchafalaya dump into the GOM. I believe there are ways to not only make the gulf more eco- friendly with the lowlands, but to turn the coastal erosion into coastal restoration with a minimum of financing. BTW, has anyone you guys know, ever studied the effects of closing off Bayou Lafourche from the river on coastal erosion in Louisiana? I believe this has been a major reason for the SE coastlines of La. being eaten away over the past 40 years especially.

[NewsCopy]

I was recently in Lafayette and the surrounding area for the first time as a participant in Cycle Zydeco. I met so many wonderful people and got a real taste — in every way — of Acadiana. My heart goes out to all of you as you await the flooding. I ...

The rest of the story

[HelmutVII]

_ I wonder when this is all over if it would be possible to meet with someone in the corps & possibly talk about design changes in the way the Mississippi & the Atchafalaya dump into the GOM. I believe there are ways to not only make the gulf more eco- friendly with the lowlands, but to turn the coastal erosion into coastal restoration with a minimum of financing. BTW, has anyone you guys know, ever studied the effects of closing off Bayou Lafourche from the river on coastal erosion in Louisiana? I believe this has been a major reason for the SE coastlines of La. being eaten away over the past 40 years especially. _

I need to check with my brother to see how they are operating the Caernarvon structure. He is now retired from the COE but I'm sure he will know the scoop. You can google "caernarvon" to see what happened when they tried a fresh water diversion. Basically it stirred up much more than silt.

Sometimes things that appear obvious are not easily done due to politics, and special interests. We will leave it at that.


This is a link to a COE freshwater diversion PDF. There is plenty of info on fresh water diversion on the COE web site.

http://www.mvn.usace.army.mil/pao/br...rDiversion.pdf

[NewsCopy]

Matherne said the French-descent Cajuns and other people who have chosen to live here like the outdoor life of fishing and hunting, as well as the warmth and friendliness of their neighbors. “People feel the benefits outweigh the risks," he said.

The rest of the story

[CajunRed]

Helmut or BigEd...some good news (I think) released this morning that the expected crests along the river have been lowered by 2 feet or even a little more than that. I know we're still going to get a ton of water, but that's GOT to be pretty good news!


igeaux.mobi

[cjr3888]

Question for Ed or anyone else who knows,

I drive up and down the levee at least three times a week between Lake Fausee Point and Henderson. Last year, I noticed some small landslides from the top of the levee that haven't all been taken care of. The water won't reach those heights, but can that be a sign of structural damage to the levee? Or is it just as it seems, rain softening the top soil and sliding down?

[HelmutVII]

_ Question for Ed or anyone else who knows,

I drive up and down the levee at least three times a week between Lake Fausee Point and Henderson. Last year, I noticed some small landslides from the top of the levee that haven't all been taken care of. The water won't reach those heights, but can that be a sign of structural damage to the levee? Or is it just as it seems, rain softening the top soil and sliding down? _

Did they appear to be swelling at the bottom and shrinking at the top? Like there was a rotation of a wedge of soil. Or was there a very small ravine through the middle of the affected area?

One of the things that they hope happens after the flood is for the water to recede slowly. When the levees hold water for a long period of time the soil becomes saturated. If the water recedes tto fast the saturated ground will slough off.

[cjr3888]

It just appeared like the rain softened the top and small landslides occurred. I didnt notice until they actually happened.


igeaux.mobi

[HelmutVII]

_ It just appeared like the rain softened the top and small landslides occurred. I didnt notice until they actually happened.


igeaux.mobi _

Probably a sliding circle (shear) failure.