2011 Mississippi River Spring Floods

[NewsCopy]

NEW ORLEANS (AP) - The Army Corps of Engineers closed another gate on the Morganza spillway north of Baton Rouge on Thursday as the threat from severe flooding of the Mississippi River diminished.

Now only one gate on the structure that diverts Mississippi water into the Atchafalaya basin remains open, said Rachel Rodi, a corps spokeswoman. At the height of the flood, 17 gates on Morganza were open.

Rodi said the Bonnet Carre spillway, which lies much closer to New Orleans, remained wide open.

Meanwhile, the corps has five dredges working to keep the river open where it flows into the Gulf of Mexico. Shipping restrictions are in place there and mariners have complained that the corps is not doing enough to keep ships moving through the passes quickly.

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KATC

[CajunRed]

Hats off to the Corps. They handled this as well as I think it could possibly have been handled.


igeaux.mobi

[Trigger74]

In the spring of 1975, my 1st year with Corps, I had 1st one, then two and ended up with 4 dredges in the Southwest pass. Three contractor dredges from Bean Dredging, with the CF Bean, larges pipeline dredge at that time being the key dredge. The 4th dredge was a Corps owned hopper dredge. We had to keep the channel at 55 ft. Wonder what the limits are today?

[RaginFan2]

_ In the spring of 1975, my 1st year with Corps, I had 1st one, then two and ended up with 4 dredges in the Southwest pass. Three contractor dredges from Bean Dredging, with the CF Bean, larges pipeline dredge at that time being the key dredge. The 4th dredge was a Corps owned hopper dredge. We had to keep the channel at 55 ft. Wonder what the limits are today? _

According to a USA Today article in the Sunday Advertiser yesterday, the Corps is supposed to maintain Southwest Pass at 750 ft. wide and 45 ft. deep. It also said that recently one section had shrunk to 180 ft. in width and that the dredging operation is not keeping up with the amount of sediment being deposited. It further said that the Corps' dredging budget dropped from $117M last year to $74M this year.

[biged05]

_ Hats off to the Corps. They handled this as well as I think it could possibly have been handled.


igeaux.mobi _

Thanks Red!!

[Turbine]

_ Thanks Red!! _

Red is right, truely amazing job.

Give cred where cred is due.

Thanks

[CajunRed]

Water level on at Lake Pelba (part of Henderson Lake) is now below 19 feet...18.97 as of 11:00 today. Water continues to drop at the rate of 1 foot per week.

Good news with hurricane season upon us.

[NewsCopy]

The research vessel Acadiana rolls with the waves in the Gulf of Mexico, 10_kilo_metres off the coast of Louisiana. Scientists and crew members scan the murky waters. Suddenly, triggered by an acoustic signal, a cluster of bright-yellow buoys comes ...

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[HelmutVII]

Just in case anybody is interested this is a link to power point presentation that BRIEFLY describes what is necessary to do an analysis of open channel flow in a river

http://www.engr.psu.edu/ce/HEC/FEMA/...0Mechanics.ppt


It's much more than plugging in values into a formula.

[NewsCopy]

LAFAYETTE, La. (AP) - A new flood map for Lafayette Parish is expected to offer a mixed bag, shrinking flood zones in some areas while making large tracts of vacant land more difficult to develop.

The final version of the Federal Emergency Management Agency flood map - the first update for the parish since 1996 - has not been released, but city-parish officials say it should be in their hands within a few weeks and could be in place before the end of the year.

The map is used to determine flood insurance rates, to set elevations for new construction in flood zones and to regulate development to reduce flooding impacts.

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KATC

[NewsCopy]

Water levels are dropping in the Morganza spillway but the Army Corps of Engineers announced it's not going to be closed for at least another month.

The decision is raising a lot of questions for area farmers; much of their farm land is still under water.

One farmer says his season is over with because of the flooding. He's now looking to next year.

"It's going to take the rest of the year to get it fixed for next year," he said.

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KATC

[NewsCopy]

  The Army Corps of Engineers on Monday closed the last floodgates on Louisiana's Bonnet Carre Spillway, which was opened May 9 to prevent the Mississippi River from flooding New Orleans and Baton Rouge.

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