May 14, 2011
— Open Blogger I know I'm breaking the blog rules by reading the blog before posting, but I just wanted to throw an extra knowledge log on the fire about what we're seeing down in Louisiana. A quick shout-out to 1LT J.T. Gabler, LA National Guard/ Army Corps of Engineers for his technical assistance in writing this- during the oil spill, he was the commanding officer on-scene in Plaquemines Parish, and you probably saw him interviewed during the TV time... he got a lot of air time in that time period.
Anyway, this is the first time Morganza has been opened since 1973. The Mississippi River, if not diverted, is predicted to get within about six inches of the tops of the levees in New Orleans and Baton Rouge, which causes all sorts of unpleasantries ranging from putting a lot of pressure on the levees to preventing shipping traffic from transit (ships can't get under bridges, power lines, cross-river pipelines, etc.) to the potential flooding of seven of the nation's gasoline refineries.
The Morganza Spillway is located roughly 40 miles northwest of Baton Rouge, at river mile 280. The official flow of water necessary to consider opening it is 1,500,000 cubic feet per second. Water will not flow into the spillway if open unless the river is well above flood stage.
Below the fold, a graphic and some more information...

Graphic from www.nola.com.
As you can see in the graphic above, there is a smaller spillway down at the southwest side of Lake Ponchartrain called the Bonnet Carre spillway- it allows the river to flow into the lake at a rate of 250,000 cubic feet per second. It is open as of this writing.
The Corps of Engineers is opening the spillway to 25%, allowing 150,000 cubic feet of water per second to flow into the Atchafalaya River Basin, flowing down to the Atchafalaya Swamp and Bay. The two big population centers affected by this are Morgan City and Houma, which are both significant port cities that handle shipping, fishing, and petroleum. Part of the run-up to this has been the significant presence in the news of the impending release- this is part of protocol to give residents in the area ample warning that an opening is coming and to prepare.
As mentioned in the article Drew linked to at www.nola.com (that's the Times-Picayune website, the newspaper in New Orleans), a swath 20 miles wide by 150 miles long will be flooded, affecting about 25,000 people and 11,000 structures. The big impacts will be on fishing, agriculture, petroleum, and shipping... there are cattle down there, as well as sugar cane, oil and gas production, and the usual port facilities. Also, the Atchafalaya Swamp- a key wetland for hurricane protection- will get a lot of water into it.
At the Wikipedia page on Morganza, there are graphics indicating the flooding scenarios predicted by the Corps of Engineers. By opening the spillway, the intention is to lower the amount of water travelling past Baton Rouge and New Orleans, as well as protect the seven oil refineries, assorted petrochemical plants, and nuclear power plant, from flood damage.
So that's some background... obviously, this is pretty historic flooding. This is, according to Mrs. tmi3rd (a meteorologist for the National Weather Service), a result of the days and days of continuous rain across the middle of the country. The stuff you've seen about flooding near Cairo, IL (requiring the levee to be blown up across the river on the Missouri side) and at Memphis makes its way down to the mouth of the river, and it's made a hell of a mess for everyone in its path.
Here's a link to video of the spillway opening.
Posted by: Open Blogger at
01:39 PM
| Comments (81)
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Posted by: eman: Japanese Babe and Mississippi Babe Rescue Team at May 14, 2011 01:58 PM (64xTs)
Posted by: tmi3rd at May 14, 2011 01:58 PM (WRtsc)
Posted by: tmi3rd at May 14, 2011 01:59 PM (WRtsc)
I suspect they are designed to handle the 100 year flood or they would not have been licensed.
Posted by: Vic at May 14, 2011 01:59 PM (M9Ie6)
Bush is killing black people again!! Darth Cheney is behind it all.
[hey, BTW, I thought Teh Won was supposed to cause the ocean to subside, etc. Why doesn't he do something...??]
[Hey #2, I'd love to see New Orlean go underwater again. ha ha ha ha. Hey Chocolate City, how's that Hope and Change workin' for ya!?!]
Posted by: chuck in st paul at May 14, 2011 02:00 PM (EhYdw)
Posted by: tmi3rd at May 14, 2011 02:01 PM (WRtsc)
Posted by: Some Asshole Across the Country at May 14, 2011 02:03 PM (zzcyw)
Posted by: tmi3rd at May 14, 2011 02:03 PM (WRtsc)
Posted by: tmi3rd at May 14, 2011 02:04 PM (WRtsc)
Heh. Glad we paid to rebuild the place after Katrina just so it can flood again.
Posted by: NC Ref at May 14, 2011 02:07 PM (/izg2)
Posted by: tmi3rd at May 14, 2011 02:08 PM (WRtsc)
Posted by: NC Ref at May 14, 2011 02:10 PM (/izg2)
Posted by: tmi3rd at May 14, 2011 02:11 PM (WRtsc)
I want to make a joke about Barry's War On Oil but it's not funny.
Posted by: HeatherRadish at May 14, 2011 02:14 PM (op4Bf)
Posted by: tmi3rd at May 14, 2011 02:15 PM (WRtsc)
Posted by: Lone Marauder at May 14, 2011 02:18 PM (PzzvT)
Posted by: tmi3rd at May 14, 2011 02:20 PM (WRtsc)
Very, very sad. And, my prayers go out to those who are impacted.
Posted by: The Entire State of NY at May 14, 2011 02:43 PM (piMMO)
Let the sea take New Orleans back. It belongs to her. Then, someday, we can click on a link about some spooky old ghost town that God reclaimed after her got fed up with people pissing on hobos in the allies.
Posted by: Clueless at May 14, 2011 02:46 PM (piMMO)
Posted by: tmi3rd at May 14, 2011 02:49 PM (WRtsc)
Well of course! Because as we all know, the entire state of Louisiana is that five-square-mile area.
I wonder where people who snark about this stuff think the gas they put in their cars comes from....
Posted by: The War Between the Undead States at May 14, 2011 02:54 PM (zzcyw)
So, it's really necessary to have a New Orleans to produce gas?
Posted by: Clueless at May 14, 2011 03:03 PM (piMMO)
Posted by: Tom at May 14, 2011 03:04 PM (nQR0p)
You are fighting with your own shadow.
Posted by: Clueless at May 14, 2011 03:06 PM (piMMO)
Posted by: tmi3rd at May 14, 2011 03:07 PM (WRtsc)
Central Ohio got a record 7.16 inches for April.
I work at a golf course. It sucked.
Not nearly as bad as down river flooding, tho.
Posted by: ErikW at May 14, 2011 03:08 PM (r/tCh)
Posted by: tmi3rd at May 14, 2011 03:08 PM (WRtsc)
Posted by: Shep Smith-Cooper at May 14, 2011 03:09 PM (vdfwz)
Posted by: tmi3rd at May 14, 2011 03:09 PM (WRtsc)
Trollbusting? Really?
New Orleans is off limits? Really?! Since when?!
Posted by: Clueless at May 14, 2011 03:10 PM (piMMO)
Posted by: Jerry Rivers at May 14, 2011 03:11 PM (vdfwz)
Oh please God!
Posted by: Paranoid Crawfish at May 14, 2011 03:12 PM (zzcyw)
Posted by: tmi3rd at May 14, 2011 03:12 PM (WRtsc)
The cool thing is that the Corps of Engineers could, indeed, control the Mississippi River. Now there's some hubris, and very cool engineering. At one point, the river undermined the dam so badly that they had to hire divers to shotcrete it back into place. Fighting a river that big takes serious measures. The fact that we can control it is remarkable.
Posted by: tcn at May 14, 2011 03:13 PM (QuGK2)
Posted by: tmi3rd at May 14, 2011 03:17 PM (WRtsc)
Watching the vid it is amazing that there is any ability whatsoever to direct a force of nature so enormous as the Mississippi. The ability of the human race to create, to engineer, to solve the most complex problems is simply awe-inspiring in itself. Yet, we'd better be careful not to get too damned cocky and, I fear, the Mississippi is reminding us of that fact now.
Posted by: Clueless at May 14, 2011 03:18 PM (piMMO)
Posted by: Clueless at May 14, 2011 03:24 PM (piMMO)
The Corps will lose this battle at some point. The Atchafalaya route is 200 fewer miles to the sea. The channel will move someday and I hope that someone in the Corps has put down the hubris for long enough to draw up a decent contingency plan.
Posted by: Captain Ned at May 14, 2011 03:25 PM (4DXCI)
Posted by: tmi3rd at May 14, 2011 03:28 PM (WRtsc)
Posted by: Gmac at May 14, 2011 03:32 PM (3uvyM)
I went to the original thread first and this was one of the last posts, I had no idea this happened and I bet a lot of you didn't know either, so here's the entire post: (I changed the color cause I bought roses this color today and I'm all into this color all of a sudden)
361 As usual, totally late to the thread so if previously pointed out, disregard.Somewhere around May 1st the Supreme Court okayed a decision for the Army Corps to blow open a levy in the Midwest, flooding approx. 130k acres farmland. There was virtually no news coverage. I am sure farmers protested and some small town folk were wiped out financially. The media was virtually silent to their complaints and the story. Sure, that was the night Obama had his big of victory speech about killing Osama., but certainly there is news for more than one story. There was nothing like this LA coverage and LA has spillways and levys built for that reason,. The midwest levy had to be blown open floding areas that were never planned to be flooded.. Maybe if the media doesn't report it, it never really happened."
Posted by: lauren at May 14, 2011 06:30 PM (ibCFU)
"
Posted by: curious at May 14, 2011 03:36 PM (k1rwm)
Posted by: Hank Johnson at May 14, 2011 03:37 PM (Ia7zA)
Posted by: tmi3rd at May 14, 2011 03:39 PM (WRtsc)
Posted by: tmi3rd at May 14, 2011 03:40 PM (WRtsc)
Baton Rouge is always overlooked, but it's a very important shipping port (the farthest inland port in the country, I believe). And then there's the refineries, of course. If anything were to happen to take those out of commission for any length of time we'd all be pining for the days of $4 gas.
Posted by: The War Between the Undead States at May 14, 2011 03:43 PM (zzcyw)
I think I have an idea why it wasn't adequately covered. Quitter.
Posted by: NC Ref at May 14, 2011 03:46 PM (/izg2)
Have you ever worked in production? My old network is holding my loyal and faithful to the death staff in bondage and won't let them free to come and work for me. ..
Let's see .... what does THIS button do?
Posted by: Keith O, anonymous poster at May 14, 2011 03:51 PM (vdfwz)
I consider myself aware of stuff but I hadn't heard anything about this at all. And then when I saw Lauren's post I thought, let's bring it to the new thread to see if anyone else heard anything.
Seriously I get to hear what kim kardashian is doing every minute but they can't tell NYer's about a flood in the midwest that was ordered by the Supremes? That's just wacko.
Posted by: curious at May 14, 2011 03:52 PM (k1rwm)
Posted by: tmi3rd at May 14, 2011 07:40 PM (WRtsc)
Because it happened at 11pm edt. No live national news at that hour, and local news isn't going to break in for that story. Plus, it happened 24 hours after the Bin Ladin announcement. You knew that would be the lead story for the week and suck the oxygen out of every other event. This was Obama's victory lap week, and nothing was going to get in the MSM's slobbering on Obama's junk.
I also think that the MSM would deem blowing up the levees to save Cairo as a "good thing", but they couldn't take the chance on it being detrimental to Bambi.
Posted by: MrCaniac at May 14, 2011 03:53 PM (eKuOw)
Damn Houston, kept the black folk and sent me their Mexicans!
Posted by: Ray Nagin at May 14, 2011 03:55 PM (vdfwz)
Posted by: curious at May 14, 2011 03:56 PM (k1rwm)
Posted by: curious at May 14, 2011 03:58 PM (k1rwm)
Posted by: Buffalobob at May 14, 2011 03:59 PM (QPgXF)
There is plenty of food! And cheap. No one will go hungry.
Posted by: Walter Duranty at May 14, 2011 04:03 PM (/izg2)
It is only from big mistakes that one learns big lessons.
Posted by: Yoda at May 14, 2011 04:10 PM (/izg2)
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Posted by: NC Ref at May 14, 2011 01:57 PM (/izg2)