Mississippi covers Cajun country in brown muck
Source: Agencies |
May 16, 2011, Monday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
OVER the next few days, water spewing through a Mississippi River floodgate will crawl through the swamps of Louisiana's Cajun country, chasing people and animals to higher ground while leaving much of the land under 3 to 6 meters of brown muck.
The floodgate was opened Saturday for the first time in nearly four decades, shooting out like a waterfall. Fish jumped or were hurled through the white froth and what was dry land soon turned into a raging channel.
The water will flow 30 kilometers south into the Atchafalaya Basin, and from there it will roll on to Morgan City, an oil-and-seafood hub and a community of 12,000.
In the nearby community of Stephensville, rows of sandbags were piled up outside nearly every home.
Merleen Acosta, 58, waited in line for three hours to get her sandbags filled by prisoners, then returned later in the day for more bags.
Floodwaters inundated Acosta's home when the Morganza spillway was opened in 1973, driving her out for several months.
The thought of losing her home again was so stressful she was getting sick. "I was throwing up at work," she said.
The opening of the spillway diverted water from Baton Rouge and New Orleans.
Shifting the water away from the cities eased the strain on levees and blunts the potential for flooding in New Orleans that could have been much worse than Hurricane Katrina.
The Morganza spillway is part of a system of locks and levees built after the great flood of 1927, which killed hundreds and left many more without homes. When the Morganza opened, it was the first time three flood-control systems have been unlocked at the same time along the Mississippi River, a sign of just how historic the current flooding has been.
The crest of the Mississippi is still more than a week away from the Morganza spillway, and when it arrives, officials expect it to linger.
(AP)
The floodgate was opened Saturday for the first time in nearly four decades, shooting out like a waterfall. Fish jumped or were hurled through the white froth and what was dry land soon turned into a raging channel.
The water will flow 30 kilometers south into the Atchafalaya Basin, and from there it will roll on to Morgan City, an oil-and-seafood hub and a community of 12,000.
In the nearby community of Stephensville, rows of sandbags were piled up outside nearly every home.
Merleen Acosta, 58, waited in line for three hours to get her sandbags filled by prisoners, then returned later in the day for more bags.
Floodwaters inundated Acosta's home when the Morganza spillway was opened in 1973, driving her out for several months.
The thought of losing her home again was so stressful she was getting sick. "I was throwing up at work," she said.
The opening of the spillway diverted water from Baton Rouge and New Orleans.
Shifting the water away from the cities eased the strain on levees and blunts the potential for flooding in New Orleans that could have been much worse than Hurricane Katrina.
The Morganza spillway is part of a system of locks and levees built after the great flood of 1927, which killed hundreds and left many more without homes. When the Morganza opened, it was the first time three flood-control systems have been unlocked at the same time along the Mississippi River, a sign of just how historic the current flooding has been.
The crest of the Mississippi is still more than a week away from the Morganza spillway, and when it arrives, officials expect it to linger.
(AP)
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