‘Flood the farms to save the cities’

Mississippi floodwaters surged through central Louisiana Saturday as the Morganza spillway was reopened for the first time in almost 40 years.

To protect cities like Baton Rouge and New Orleans, the spillway was opened to divert water from the increasingly strained levees, which, if breached, could cause flooding much worse than Hurricane Katrina.

Oil refineries and chemical plants along the river were also under threat as the Mississippi reached an all-time high last Wednesday.

It is planned to open only about 30 gates of the 125 that span the 3,900-foot spillway by tomorrow, but water could flow through them for weeks.

While the Morganza spillway was designed specifically for this purpose, many farms, businesses, neighborhoods and communities have developed in the area in the 40 years since it was last flooded.

“Flood the farms to save the cities,” wrote the Washington Post last week. “That’s the trade-off staring at the Army Corps of Engineers in Louisiana this week ….”

The decision to open the Morganza will now place thousands of acres of farms and fish camps underwater. In some places, the water will be as high as 25 feet. In the 57 years since its construction, the Morganza spillway has only been opened one other time, in 1973.

In exchange for saving the cities, the Post continued, “a flood would shoot down the gut of central Louisiana and join the already high Atchafalaya River, which would further swell and flood. For 200 miles, farmers and fishermen would pay a steep price as a torrent greater than Niagara Falls would inundate crops, crawfish hatcheries and, possibly, the small cities of Houma and Morgan City. Sensitive oyster beds in the Gulf of Mexico would be imperiled by the pulse of freshwater.”

The Bonnet Carre Spillway, just north of New Orleans, has already opened all 350 of its bays in an effort to combat the rising Mississippi.

The raging river has already flooded 3 million acres across Arkansas, Tennessee and Mississippi, causing thousands to evacuate.

Why are so many record-breaking disasters occurring with increasing frequency across the globe? For the answer, read columnist Joel Hilliker’s article, “Twisters, Floods, Drought—What’s Wrong With the Weather?”