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Checking out the Atchafalaya...before the gates open wide

Louise Hose

Well Known Member
I had business on the Gulf Coast last week and ended up in Baton Rouge last Friday night. To avoid another dreaded flight in the mailing tube (and flying through DFW on the way to Houston), I convinced Paul to fly over and pick me up early Saturday morning. While it hadn't/hasn't really hit the national news yet, locals and geologists already knew that there may be a huge event brewing in Louisiana and I wanted to check things out before the real flood hits. I'm the first to admit the beauty of the flight didn't match Scott and RaNae's, but it sure was interesting.

We started out of Baton Rouge and headed up the Mississippi River.

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Major flooding hasn't hit....yet. But, the river was out of its banks in places and things were pretty wet upstream of BR.

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They have evacuated some prisoners from Angola Prison already and we could see why.

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I had seen the Old River Control Structure from higher flights and at "normal" flow but wanted to check it out during this growing crisis. Interesting. I wonder if all my old LSU professors and John McPhee will be proven right?

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We also found the Morganza Spillway, which may be opened later this week, and checked out the thousands of acres and 2000 structures (http://www.nola.com/weather/index.ssf/2011/05/record_high_river_likely_to_re.html and http://www.nola.com/weather/index.ssf/2011/05/communities_in_path_of_morganz.html) that will be flooded when/if that happens.

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Once we left this critical area, we flew down the Atchafalaya River to the coast and followed the coast to Houston. All of the photos from the trip are posted at: https://picasaweb.google.com/DrKarst/LATX_Overflight20110506?authkey=Gv1sRgCLOY-p758JOzXw#
 
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This was a fun mission to fly, and scientifically interesting - even for an engineer, because after all, it's the Corps of Engineer's reputation on the line this time. They say that the big pulse that just crested in Memphis is due down in Louisiana in a week - I bet Louise and Mikey head over that way for an update then. It's a pretty interesting story (as explained to me by my resident PhD) - if the Old River Control Structure fails, the 'chafalya becomes the new outlet for the Mississippi, and the Port of New Orleans disappears. I'm makin' popcorn to watch this one....

I flew over IFR (due to early morning matching temps and dewpoints) in an hour and ten minutes. We took 2:45 to get home - yeah, it was a lot of fun flying!

Paul
 
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It's funny, on Monday morning I was listening to an NPR story on the flooding, and wondering as well if Old River would hold. I first read about Old River in the John McPhee book Control of Nature.

And when I got to my desk, I found that Randall Munroe of XKCD fame has been wondering as well.

Thanks, Bob K.
 
Interesting stuff, certainly to a geology person like me. Will look for continued aerial reporting and new material (and personal photos/stories) for my intro geology courses!

cheers,
greg
 
Very interesting Louise! I had absolutely NO idea about the Mississippi, its history, and that there is a control mechanism in place. Agree this will be one to watch!

edit: ... but if the ORCS is destroyed couldn't a new control system be installed and the Mississippi be repaired to function as needed again?
 
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Flooding in Louisiana: Deja vu All Over Again

With my RV-7A hangared in New Iberia, ARA, every time I take off, I see the Gulf of Mexico waters a mere 20 miles to the south. New Iberia is only 20 above sea level, the storm surge of hurricane Rita was over 30 feet. A friend of mine, a professor at UL, the local college was telling me that Houma, a city of 20,000 to 25,000 brave souls will need to think about resettling due to the encroachment of the gulf in the near future.

The photos of the Morganza spillway are so interesting to me. A civil engineer who lives near me, recounted last night that in the flooding of the Mississippi River in 1973, the flood waters nearly eroded the control structure and once the river "captures" the Atchafalaya River, there is no going back. This would isolate Baton Rouge and New Orleans and salt water would rush up the old Mississippi river channel.

Lafayette is on the good side of the levee and away from the area that will be flooded by water emptied down the Atchafalaya. Living on a bayou, it is only a matter of time before the water spills over the banks and floods the houses nearby. Even with our levees and aggressive flood control, old man river continues to have the upper hand. After Katrina and the BP oil spill, I am beginning to wonder if Louisiana is the stage for a reality TV show for the rest of the country.

S S Anderson
RV 7A 215 hours
Lafayette, La.
 
Check out Doug's reference

but if the ORCS is destroyed couldn't a new control system be installed and the Mississippi be repaired to function as needed again?

Doug Reeve's posted a site on the front page with very good information on the ORCS at http://www.americaswetlandresources.com/background_facts/detailedstory/LouisianaRiverControl.html.

Distributary river systems (and the Mississippi/Atchafalaya Delta area is a major one) are constructional and naturally dynamic. The fight to keep the majority flow going down the Mississippi channel to New Orleans becomes more difficult all the time and trying to re-build something to replace the ORCS will be harder and more expensive than the last time.
 
As of 10 AM west coast time Natchez is at 58.34 feet, above the 58.04 feet of the 1937 flood. Here's the regularly-updated chart:

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... but if the ORCS is destroyed couldn't a new control system be installed and the Mississippi be repaired to function as needed again?

Possible? Sure, I guess so. Practical? My guess is probably not.

We've been artificially constraining the Mississippi to something like its current course for about fifty years, and it is really itching to head downhill at a faster slope. In essence, we have been forcing it down an ever-siltier path of ever-increasing resistance. That can't possibly go on for much longer.

If it does go through the western bank and down the Achafalaya, it will pretty quickly scour out a trough for itself that offers a very attractive gradient. To force one of the worlds largest rivers out of that new trough and back down its longer, shallower path would likely be one of the most difficult and expensive hydrological undertakings ever. It would also be a temporary victory at best; the Mississippi will eventually capture and hold a shorter and steeper path to the gulf.

Thanks, Bob K.
 
Your photos

Having grown up at the confluence of the Missippi and Des Moines Rivers flooding was a annual and anticipated issue for my farm family. Your photos and explaination highlights Sam Clemon's warning about trying to contain the Great River Mistress. Great photos. Thank you for sharing
Randy Means
N595RV
2010
 
I was crossing the White River over Memphis on Friday and then again on Sunday. I assume all of that water will eventually travel down and I am sure it will have serious consequences. I hope the system works.
 
To force one of the worlds largest rivers out of that new trough and back down its longer, shallower path would likely be one of the most difficult and expensive hydrological undertakings ever. It would also be a temporary victory at best; the Mississippi will eventually capture and hold a shorter and steeper path to the gulf.

That doesn't mean we're not stupid enough to try by throwing money at it!

Louise, I would eventually like to have a few high-res copies of some of the photos - maybe later in the summer when things settle for me a bit. I actually flew over the Ohio-Mississippi confluence (at 35000 feet) on Saturday and tried to get a few photos out of the scratchy window of American Airlines. Garbage in comparison to yours.

cheers,
greg
 
New New Orleans...

This is a classic lecture by my sedimentary petrology / clastics professor at OU. He takes a group of us geology grad students down to see the Old River Control each year. Old River Control was hours (maybe minutes?) from failing in 1972...this year, the people living on the Atchafalaya might not be so lucky. Being from New Orleans, I always try to inform people that this is the greatest danger the Louisiana economy and citizens might well be facing, but nobody seems to know about it.

Thanks for the pics Louise (I sent the link to my prof...I bet he'll include some of them in his next lecture). I can't wait until I move to Houston later this summer so I can do some RV bayou flying of my own!
 
These posts have me very concerned, for two reasons.
1 My old business partner is from Houma, his folks still live there and his dad being a retired lifelong employee of Exxon is well off, but very stingy and has a permit from the feds to manufacture his own ?ethanol? for use in his cars and tractor, 5 gallons a day is allowed for personal use and distribution, how ill this affect my supply?
2. The BEST and I mean BEST Boudin is from a butcher shop in Houma.

It is truly a potential catastrophe and I hope that it is averted somehow, so let?s keep our fingers crossed.
 
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