The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers will open over 30 bays on the Bonnet Carre Spillway in St. Charles Parish Wednesday morning and the flood control structure could remain open for the next month to relieve pressure on the New Orleans levee system. Corps of Engineers Colonel Michael Clancy says they’ve been in a flood fight with the Mississippi River since November 2nd.
“It’s been the wettest winter in the Mississippi valley in the last 124 years, that’s what’s been bringing up all of this water. We still have spring rains to get through, and snow melt.”
When the Spillway opens, it diverts a portion of the Mississippi’s flow into a seven mile long empty plain that drains into Lake Pontchartrain.
The river’s flow is set to exceed 1.25 million cubic feet per second, surpassing the New Orleans levee system’s capacity. Clancy says that’s enough water to fill up the entire volume of the Superdome every minute.
“The river at 17 feet high is 17 feet above sea level. Half of the City of New Orleans is below sea level, so, just picture that.”
Forty-one percent of the nation’s watersheds drain into the Mississippi, and Clancy says to compensate for the abnormally large amount of water, they’ll have to flood the salt water Pontchartrain with tens of thousands of cubic feet per second of Mississippi fresh water.
“We’re opening approximately 38 bays, diverting about 36,000 cubic feet per second, and then we will adjust every day from there.”
200 bays could be opened during peak usage.
