2011 Mississippi River Spring Floods

[NewsCopy]

"Cajuns are the most resilient form of humanity I know of,'' said Jones, whose family has lived in the bayou since 1765. In the Bayou Estates neighborhood, Wendie Hotard had barricaded her one-story brick ranch home with nearly 300 sandbags piled 3 feet high.

The rest of the story

[NewsCopy]

The government is in the process of flooding several thousand of these descendants of Acadia right out of their homes by opening up floodgates along the rising and soon to be overflowing Mississippi River. They are doing this for the “common good ...

The rest of the story

[NewsCopy]

BATON ROUGE — The Army Corps of Engineers opened two more bays on the Morganza Spillway on Monday to alleviate pressure on Mississippi River levees downstream. Col. Ed Fleming, commander of the New Orleans District of the Corps, said the spillway is ...

The rest of the story

[axg8750]

Sorry if someone else has already posted this link. I have kept up with most of the posts but not all. Check out the operation this guy has going on to keep his house high and dry. Pretty amazing. I do not believe it is in Louisiana but it is somewhere along the Mississippi.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QgKsehkcIF8&sns=em


igeaux.mobi

[NewsCopy]

There are some who are refusing to leave their homes. Wayne Magnum, like so many other Cajuns, came to this hideaway to drift through the hidden waters catching crawfish. He's one of a handful of locals who remain. "I ain't leaving," he says, as he casts ...

The rest of the story

[Bandwagon King]

This is a sight I have been following all the river gauges on. there are charts dating back a week if you scroll over the latest level of each gauge reading & left click. You can look at the 24 hour change & go back & note changes by the hour over the past 40+ hours by left clicking. To my untrained engineerless eyes it appears by the chart & the hourly readings that the river at Natchez is at it's peak right now & the river at Knox landing may have already peeked & is possibly coming down even before Natchez, even though that doesn't make sense uless opening the gates at Morganza has actually caused the river downstream to outrun the River upstream.

It is showing the Atchafalaya @ Butte Larose still below 21'. If we are reaching a peek already, then there is a good possibility that not only won't Butte Larose flood, but Stephensville & Amelia might not flood either. Somone correct me if I'm wrong, but we were told the water was going to hit Morgan City with in 48 hours & start to rise fairly rapidly down there. Well not fairly rapidly, but it should be rising more rapidly than it's rising to even reach eleven feet. This thing is starting to look very encouraging. To the totally untrained unusable eye & mind that is.

http://www2.mvr.usace.army.mil/Water...new/layout.cfm

[biged05]

King,

The river crest is coming soon but its going to be an extended crest. We initially said about 3 days to get to Morgan city and I think it was based on what happened in '73. The biggest difference though is we had to open all the bays at one time then. This time we did a slow opening to let the wild life get out the way. As of yesterday morning the front edge of the water was just below hwy 190. It's taking a lot longer to get to Morgan city, but I think it will still get to 11' or somewhere close to that, and it will probably stay there for a while.

igeaux.mobi

[CajunRed]

BigEd...has the predicted crest for Butte La Rose been lowered due to more ground absorption of water than expected. I believe the latest estimation was 27 feet.

Again...thanks for putting up with us and providing ongoing updates.

Red

igeaux.mobi

[biged05]

The latest prediction still stands at 27'. It's taking longer due to the dry ground but once it's saturated it will come up. The water will be here long enough to get to wherever it would have of the weather wasn't so dry

igeaux.mobi

[HelmutVII]

A constant, fairly strong north wind the first part of this week didn't hurt either. But the wind is turning around to the south so that will plug things up a little.

They must be pumping the hell out of Teche-Vermilion too. The Vermilion is pretty high considering how dry its been.

[chauncey]

I live on Bayou Teche in Breaux Bridge. The water is very low!

[Bandwagon King]

_ The latest prediction still stands at 27'. It's taking longer due to the dry ground but once it's saturated it will come up. The water will be here long enough to get to wherever it would have of the weather wasn't so dry

igeaux.mobi _

I have been studying the river gauge levels & the charts up into Missourri & I can tell you the river has definitely crested & is going down at break neck speed ( for a river that is) everywhere above Vicksburg & appears to be peeking or very nearly peeking in Vicksburg & Natchez. It is actually going down in Knox Landing & totally under control in Baton rouge. Unless they opened more bays overnight, I don't think they'll be opening any more.

The river is taking forever to rise where the spillway widens out & Morgan Ciity & Calumet are getting rid of the water almost as fast or faster it seems than it is getting fed to them. To me this means unless there is a major weather event over the next five days, this thing will never see 25' In Butte Larose & most likely won't get up above the road on Hwy. 90. I don't see lake Palour getting out of it's banks even.

Please use the disclaimers that I have been studying these charts for a grand total of 6 days of my life, but I look at charts almost everyday & the charts I'm seeing are telling me that unless there is more water created than the lower Atchafalaya can get rid of for a much longer time frame than this, the river doesn't look to be going above flood stage here from what I can see. I want to thank the core for doing a wonderful job managing this water & God for giving us some of the most beautiful helpful weather I can recall in my life.

Oh BTW, while we are having a southerly wind picking back up, the moon just filled two nights ago & is going down in phase. This should keep tidal levels down & thereby continue to allow the river to flow more freely below the levees & with June approaching the winds are pretty sure to calm down.