A very interesting article at the source.
Posted on 05/18/2011 5:36:41 PM PDT by dynachrome
Could it happen this year? The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is forcing the river down a path it no longer wants to travel. Had the river gotten the best of the engineers in 1973 the Mississippi would not be the same river today–it would have forced a new path down the Atchafalaya basin, a course that is some 20 feet lower than the river’s current main stem, and which offers a 150-mile shorter path to the Gulf of Mexico. Its course has changed dozens of times over the millenia, “sweeping back and forth like a garden hose,” and will change again. You can see a beautiful map of the river’s countless meanders here, and download a full set of historical maps here.
McPhee spent months trying to understand the centuries of engineering prowess that have gone into trying to control the Mississippi, especially the creation of structures much in the news today, like Old River Control and the Morganza Floodway, which was opened over the weekend to allow floodwaters to course down through the Atchafalaya basin.
(Excerpt) Read more at blogs.forbes.com ...
A very interesting article at the source.
Maybe it will be like the old days with guys cutting new channels to leave their neighbors high and dry!
Beautiful graphic.
Gives me a “not available” page?
Never mind. got the 2nd post.
The link didn’t work to get me to the graph. You’ll have to make your own plot.
If they do that will Morgan City and Houma flood?
Yeah except the Discovery channel will make it into a “reality” show. :)
Sure looks like it. I get the impression the C of E isn’t going to have a choice on this one. Paging Kanye West......
It seems that river wants to meander. When man tries to change what God has created and then builds cities relying on “man’s power” to control things, man will lose every time. If God wants the Atchafalaya channel to take in the Mississippi and destroy Morgan City, so it will be. We can only watch in wonder at his power and praise him for his creation.
McPhee should be required reading for anyone living in the Mississippi/Missouri/Ohio River Basins. Add to that John Barry’s book, Rising Tide that tells the story of the 1927 flood. You must understand the river if you intend to live within its reach, and these two writers provide an insight that everyone can understand.
Among the lessons that come clearly to light are that man can do much to control this mighty river, but in the end, the river will prevail. The Atchafalaya will capture the Mississippi, of that we can be certain. Without the extraordinary engineering efforts that have been undertaken in the past 130 years, it would have happened already. But, someday, the river will win and the Old River Control System and the Morganza Floodway will be undermined during some massive flood event and the river will carve a new channel to the Atchafalaya basin and it will be game over. I don’t think that it will happen this year, at least based on reports of the last few days. The system has worked as designed and we don’t have any apparent undermined/scouring that might destroy the flood control structures. We have dodged a bullet. But, the river is patient and she will win some day.
I still remember the first time I drove on Hwy. 90 from Florida to Texas in 1970. For maybe 25 miles there was nothing but swamp and rivers. One bridge after another until I finally came to the Huey Long Bridge.
The Atchafalaya must be the biggest swamp in the world.
30.91 05-18-2011
Not good
When I was a kid in high school, they taught us that periodic flooding like this is what replenishes farmland with valuable solids from the river sediment. Periodic flooding is not necessarily a bad thing, and it sounds like many of the residents already know that, and many had long-standing plans on how to evacuate now, and pick up the pieces later.
I saw one guy on the news last night who stripped his home of everything, including the kitchen cabinets, the hot water tank and the air conditioning condenser unit. He’s prepared to make whatever repairs to the sheetrock he has to, and then reinstall everything again.
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