Opening of the Moganza floodway

On Saturday I got to attend the opening of the Morganza spillway. The road was closed a few miles from the spillway, but my friend Tegan simply flashed her PRESS badge and we were immediately ushered through the roadblock. (Alas, the other car in our party was turned away.)

The Army Corps of Engineers gave a press conference at 2:30pm just below (and to the side of) the control structure. Here you can see the media circus, with a depth marker placed ominously in the foreground:



The Army Corps of Engineers official gave a speech and then addressed questions from the reporters.

I was surprised how quickly the floodway below the control structure began to fill. The area where the press conference was held began to be submerged less than 15 minutes after the single spillway gate was opened:



I hope to get a followup photo when this is all completely under water.

Here is the water cascading through that one open spillway gate:



Now there are 15 gates open.

And here's a video taken from the road deck of the control structure, looking down at the water spewing through it. Look at all the fish!

Here are two local blog entries about the flooding:

• http://louisianaswamp.blogspot.com/2011/05/louisiana-swamp-tours-crawfish-and.html


• http://false-river.blogspot.com/2011/05/nine-gates-open.html