Braces country Cajun of Louisiana for historic flooding (The Christian Science Monitor)

Morgan City, Louisiana) - ravaged by the recent hurricanes and last year's BP oil spill in the Gulf of the Mexico country Cajun of Louisiana residents are now preparing for the largest flood of the River area has seen in more than 80 years.

A week ago, the US Army Corps of Engineers opened the North Baton Rouge Morganza spillway, sending torrents of water of the flood of the Mississippi into the Atchafalaya River basin.

Designed to save Baton Rouge and New Orleans to serious flooding, the diversion to the Atchafalaya could bring 5 to 25 feet of water in seven rural parishes along the River, affecting more than 25 000 people.

RECOMMENDED: Mississippi River flooding

The parish officials have welcomed the new body will probably open 25 percent of the capacity of the Morganza instead of the predicted 50 percent, a decision which could reduce flood levels.

Although the river and the nearby bayous are topping their banks, floodwater was supposed to have already flooded some communities along the Atchafalaya evolve more slowly than anticipated.

a € ?A combination € factors, including drought for a long time in the field and the body slowing releasing water into the Morganza, giving the opportunity to escape, wildlife has slowed down water, a

Flooding should now crest to Butte LaRose in the river basin may 27 to 24.5 feet and Morgan City near the Gulf may 29 to 11 feet. The slow arrival of the flood has given officials and residents, more time to prepare.

"We have been here for generations, the family after the family after the family and the hurricanes and flooding are something that you learn to live with," said Amanda Frederick, who lives in the community of Stephensvillejust north of Morgan City in the parish of Saint-Martin.

The subdivision where she lives sandwiched between two channels, was last flooded in 1993. In 2008, Hurricane Gustav tore shingles roof, demolished his backyard fence and the hangar and broke windows with flying debris.

Six hundred sandbagsTo to prepare for the next flood, this week Frederick packaged hand nylons 600 bags provided by the parish with sand and has built a mini dam of feet in height three ringing her home.

"We expect about two feet of water in our yards here so it could be worse, but it is still much work to keep off," she said.

Up to the Atchafalaya, residents of Butte LaRose face a Saturday morning mandatory evacuation order, leaving the hamlet a ghost town. In the nearby city of Henderson, zydeco dance halls could be packed on normal weekends is empty.

"Just people now expect the water to come and have disappeared so that they can start to clean up," said Henderson Mayor Sherbin Collette. "They're coming back to any-, it is the Cajun way."

Residents can have a long wait, as flood waters are expected to take weeks to clear, but they will help when begins cleaning.

This week, the Governor Bobby Jindal insured residents affected by the flood flooding insurance private and Federal is covers the damage. Thursday, the Federal Emergency Management Administration said that the local parishes will be refunded 75% of the costs for the preparation of the flood. However, some local officials including Terrebonne parish President Michel Claudet, said that parishes should be fully reimbursed.

"Houma, our largest city of Terrebonne, should not be affected, but we have smaller communities outside of the reception system which are very threatened by this flooding, which is not a natural event for us, said Claudet"adding that more than 1,600 houses may be at risk.

Terrebonne, the Parish has distributed 300,000 sandbags to residents.

Outside of Morgan City, a five hundred foot barge was cast in oak Bayou to create a roadblock improvised blocking turmoil in flooding in some parts of Terrebonne and St. Mary parishes. A second barge will be casting in proximity black Bayou.

The parish workers, assisted by volunteers and prison inmates, worked 18 hours a day for the last week, install tens of thousands of feet of water, of barricades of sandbags filled dams, of sand and baskets of Hesco filled to protect homes, schools and roads in the low-lying areas.

Local school systems have made contingency plans if the schools are forced to close and meet the needs of students who may not be able to travel because of the flood waters.

The Atchafalaya River Morgan City, the city of Berwick is ready for the flood on Friday afternoon.

Berwick Elementary School, located a block within the wall of 17 feet high flood of the city, school Secretary Crappell of students watched Penny that they were waiting for the day walks.

"We expect the biggest flood we have ever had" "I've lived here all my life and we expect the biggest flood we have ever had - six inches higher than 1973 - but if you are inside the wall of the flood."", you should be okay," said Crappell, who also sits on the City Council.

"Our school is going to be in agreement and my house is going to be okay, but our family business will be flooded," she said, nodding toward the floodwall.

Down the street across the flood wall, Crappell fish market was already surrounded by six inches of water as a flood swollen Atchafalaya away by yards.

Crappell husband, Reid, expected several metres of water in the building and has already implemented a portable market protected by the wall of the flooding near the town of landing boat.

"The oil spill last year hurt us because people in other States wanted to buy the Louisiana catfish, so things were just to return to normal and now it happened," he said. "This flood could put us out of the business of fishing for the next two months, but it will be a bumper season now to crawfish, so we are already in the future.".

RECOMMENDED: Mississippi River flooding

View the original article here

How flooding can restore the wetlands of Louisiana (Time.com)

The discourse on New Orleans have centered if the flood of the river Mississippi more severe in more than a quarter of a century causes catastrophic damage in a city still recovering from Hurricane Katrina. And for good reason: the flood carved a destructive path from Cairo, Illinois, at Vicksburg, Mississippi and you are prompted for the Republican Governor of Louisiana, Bobby Jindal, ask the Federal Government for emergency assistance. But just maybe it is a misfortune: the flood could actually help fragile wetlands of Louisiana.

Of course, floodwaters of the river Mississippi is destructive. Many people along Weirs open to mitigate the outbreak is likely to lose their homes. Water can also destroy oyster beds, especially in Lake Borgne, between the Mississippi and the Gulf of the Mexico. Long term effects will be not obvious for several months. But, said Alex Kolker, a geologist at the Louisiana universities Marine Consortium, it may be an opportunity to let nature help resolve an artificial problem. "It will be a fascinating time," said Kolker. (See the photos in the flood zone).

Only a year ago, the worst oil spill in American history slathered million litres of oil through the coast of Louisiana. The muck covered cane tall, resembling bamboo and grass that points together vegetation which includes wetlands, South of New Orleans, preventing them from receiving oxygen. Many experts feared it would take years for the wetlands recover, and that the industry of seafood from Louisiana core - particularly oysters, shrimp and fish cannot execute suspicion of oil - is at risk. These sediments is crucial: the loss of vegetation is accelerating the erosion of soils and the Islands.

Now, however, rich in sediments of flood water is led to contaminated wetlands. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Manager of most of the waterways of the nation, has, over the century last, put in place a framework of containment of the Mississippi River, which has deprived ultimately indispensable silt Delta wetlands. That sediment reduced a, experts say, accelerated the narrowing of the Delta. Today, however, the Agency opened two canals to divert part of the Mississippi from New Orleans and wetlands. A channel is the Bonnet Carre spillway, which is to reduce the water in Lake Pontchartrain and thence to the Gulf of the Mexico. The other is the Morganza spillway, which sends water along the Atchafalaya River basin in the Gulf. Water and sediment forced through this channel, say experts, will likely help to rebuild the wetlands to the West of the Mississippi with sediment fresh, especially fishing and shrimp villages as Dulac. The last major flood in 1973, delivered enough of sediment to create what are now big trees covered with mud banks and lush grass. These banks have provided some of the crucial defenses of New Orleans during large storms. (See following a tornado that ripped through the Mississippi).

Flooding is, to some extent, flush out the remaining oil spill last year. Some of the oil will be mix with new sediment and, according to its weight, this amalgam is pushed by the current of the Mississippi River in the Gulf. "That does not mean it is not a problem", warns Richard Steiner, a protector of the marine environment that has studied the effects of oil spill of the Exxon Valdez and BP spill in the Gulf. His primary concern: the thick, dark, weathered mixture infused oil will remain toxic and continue to jeopardize the Gulf and certainly a large part of the wetlands of Louisiana, but perhaps with lower levels of contamination. There is also the risk that some remaining wildlife species will become slathered with oil of re-emerging and die. Still, says Steiner, the best route to save the wetlands of Louisiana finally may be "just left to natural degradation." Formidable that they, the flood waters are all part of the work of nature.

See how New Orleans responds to flooding of the Mississippi River.

See the top 10 U.S. historical floods.

See this article on Time.com

Most popular on Time.com:

View the original article here

How flooding can restore the wetlands of Louisiana (Time.com)

The discourse on New Orleans have centered if the flood of the river Mississippi more severe in more than a quarter of a century causes catastrophic damage in a city still recovering from Hurricane Katrina. And for good reason: the flood carved a destructive path from Cairo, Illinois, at Vicksburg, Mississippi and you are prompted for the Republican Governor of Louisiana, Bobby Jindal, ask the Federal Government for emergency assistance. But just maybe it is a misfortune: the flood could actually help fragile wetlands of Louisiana.

Of course, floodwaters of the river Mississippi is destructive. Many people along Weirs open to mitigate the outbreak is likely to lose their homes. Water can also destroy oyster beds, especially in Lake Borgne, between the Mississippi and the Gulf of the Mexico. Long term effects will be not obvious for several months. But, said Alex Kolker, a geologist at the Louisiana universities Marine Consortium, it may be an opportunity to let nature help resolve an artificial problem. "It will be a fascinating time," said Kolker. (See the photos in the flood zone).

Only a year ago, the worst oil spill in American history slathered million litres of oil through the coast of Louisiana. The muck covered cane tall, resembling bamboo and grass that points together vegetation which includes wetlands, South of New Orleans, preventing them from receiving oxygen. Many experts feared it would take years for the wetlands recover, and that the industry of seafood from Louisiana core - particularly oysters, shrimp and fish cannot execute suspicion of oil - is at risk. These sediments is crucial: the loss of vegetation is accelerating the erosion of soils and the Islands.

Now, however, rich in sediments of flood water is led to contaminated wetlands. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Manager of most of the waterways of the nation, has, over the century last, put in place a framework of containment of the Mississippi River, which has deprived ultimately indispensable silt Delta wetlands. That sediment reduced a, experts say, accelerated the narrowing of the Delta. Today, however, the Agency opened two canals to divert part of the Mississippi from New Orleans and wetlands. A channel is the Bonnet Carre spillway, which is to reduce the water in Lake Pontchartrain and thence to the Gulf of the Mexico. The other is the Morganza spillway, which sends water along the Atchafalaya River basin in the Gulf. Water and sediment forced through this channel, say experts, will likely help to rebuild the wetlands to the West of the Mississippi with sediment fresh, especially fishing and shrimp villages as Dulac. The last major flood in 1973, delivered enough of sediment to create what are now big trees covered with mud banks and lush grass. These banks have provided some of the crucial defenses of New Orleans during large storms. (See following a tornado that ripped through the Mississippi).

Flooding is, to some extent, flush out the remaining oil spill last year. Some of the oil will be mix with new sediment and, according to its weight, this amalgam is pushed by the current of the Mississippi River in the Gulf. "That does not mean it is not a problem", warns Richard Steiner, a protector of the marine environment that has studied the effects of oil spill of the Exxon Valdez and BP spill in the Gulf. His primary concern: the thick, dark, weathered mixture infused oil will remain toxic and continue to jeopardize the Gulf and certainly a large part of the wetlands of Louisiana, but perhaps with lower levels of contamination. There is also the risk that some remaining wildlife species will become slathered with oil of re-emerging and die. Still, says Steiner, the best route to save the wetlands of Louisiana finally may be "just left to natural degradation." Formidable that they, the flood waters are all part of the work of nature.

See how New Orleans responds to flooding of the Mississippi River.

See the top 10 U.S. historical floods.

See this article on Time.com

Most popular on Time.com:

View the original article here