Wednesday, May 11, 2011

April Showers Went a Little Overboard This Year

There's been a little excitement around here the last few days.  We get a little over-anxious in New Orleans when the "F" word is being bandied about.  No, not that "F" word, the "Flood" word.

The Bonne-Carre spillway is slowly being opened to divert Mississippi River water into Lake Pontchartrain (which causes its own problems with fish and other marine critters, both salt and freshwater varieties, but I digress), but we've already hit flood stage here.  So, by Tuesday, the Morganza spillway northwest of Baton Rouge will be opened, thus dooming lots of land in the Atchafalaya Basin to flood, but the most densely populated areas of southeast Louisiana should be spared.  If the Morganza stays closed, this is what the Corps projects:

Moogie's Mansion, at 10 blocks from the Mississippi River, would be in the yellow 15 to 20 foot flood depth level.  Not a pleasant thought because the Mansion's dirt is 8 feet above sea level, and the actual structure sits another 3 feet above that.  Even math-challenged Moogie can cypher that (8 + 3) < (15 to 20).

But, even though we got a pretty good preview of what's coming as we drove home by a different route last weekend that tracked the Mississippi and spat us out in Vicksburg near the Yazoo's confluence, I don't have that "impending doom" feeling like I did before Katrina, and the ghosts aren't acting up, so I believe we should be just fine here.  My heart breaks for those who aren't so fortunate.

From an historical and intellectual perspective, this website contains more than you would ever want to know about controlling the Mississippi and flood protection.  It is kinda interesting, though.

Let's say a few prayers for those in the waters' path.

11 comments:

  1. This post brings back memories of Saint Elmo's Fire.

    "There are certain words that my mother finds too horrible to utter so she whispers them. You’ll get used to it.”

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  2. ...the ghosts aren't acting up, so I believe we should be just fine here.

    Everyone has to believe in sumthin'... or trust sumthin'... and ghosts ain't as bad as some other things.

    My best and most positive thoughts are headed your way, Moogie... and for all others in jeopardy.

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  3. Yeah Moogie, I've been watching this thing unfold. My neighbor is on standby with The Guard right now. As badly as they hate to open the Bonne Carre & Morganza, it's just gotta happen.

    Jeepers, it seems like I was a teenager the last time I heard of the Bonne Carre being opened. (I could be wrong)

    Lookit, y'all got our prayers.

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  4. I see my comment vanished into the Blogger Void. Any bets on Google making good on its "we'll restore the lost stuff" claim?

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  5. Heh -- all bets are off on that, Buck! I have your comment in email -- I'll re-post it for you:


    ...the ghosts aren't acting up, so I believe we should be just fine here.

    Everyone has to believe in sumthin'... or trust sumthin'... and ghosts ain't as bad as some other things.

    My best and most positive thoughts are headed your way, Moogie... and for all others in jeopardy.


    And Andy's:

    Yeah Moogie, I've been watching this thing unfold. My neighbor is on standby with The Guard right now. As badly as they hate to open the Bonne Carre & Morganza, it's just gotta happen.

    Jeepers, it seems like I was a teenager the last time I heard of the Bonne Carre being opened. (I could be wrong)

    Lookit, y'all got our prayers.


    I knew there had to be a good reason why I rarely clean up emails!

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  6. We really do have ghosts. They act up when something is getting ready to go wrong with the house -- move things around, manipulate machinery. It's kinda spooky. Heh.

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  7. One of the ghosts smokes cigarettes -- it's so strange to be sitting at the computer and smell cigarette smoke. No one here smokes cigs.

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  8. I don't want to see ALL of New Orleans flooded out again...Just the Ninth Ward and the Iberville projects again. Keep flooding those areas until the people learn how to evacuate when told and actually show some gratitude for the government spending more taxpayer funds on them than virtually anyone else on the planet. Maybe if we let the worst parts of the city flood another time or two, HUD and HANO will give up and just permanently relocate them all somewhere else...like Canada.

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  9. Nah -- they'll just keep throwing money and other free stuff at them. Plus, there's been a big movement here to teach folks how to swim. I'd just as soon stay dry.

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  10. I knew there had to be a good reason why I rarely clean up emails!

    Heh. I share that particular fetish with ya. As a s'matter of fact I have 19,805 EIP comments stored in a separate g-mail folder (I just checked).

    Blogger still hasn't recovered my Thursday posts and I'm thinkin' they're gone for good. No great loss, though: they were both hockey posts.

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