Posted 5/14/2011 01:41:00 PM by Douglas

Here comes the flood.

The Army Corps of Engineers announced today that if it opens the Morganza Floodway north of Baton Rouge to reduce the height of Mississippi River floodwaters flowing south, the flow into the Atchafalaya River basin may be limited to only a fourth of the floodway's capacity.

Until today, corps officials have said 300,000 cubic feet per second of water, half the floodway's capacity, would flow down the Atchafalaya.

In its statement, the corps said the flow at Red River Landing had reached 1.45 million cubic feet per second at 7 a.m. today, and is projected to reach 1.5 million cubic feet per second this weekend.

The key will be whether that's enough to keep water flow levels above the Bonnet Carre Spillway to 1.5 million cubic feet per second. That spillway, when all 350 bays are opened, diverts 250,000 cubic feet per second of water into Lake Pontchartrain, which would allow only 1.25 million cubic feet per second to pass the Carrollton Gage in New Orleans.

Here's what I don't understand. Bonnet Carre is always first to open, dumping water into Pontchartrain. But if the whole system gets overwhelmed, isn't that just going to be MORE water in New Orleans? It's the Lake Pontchartrain levees that failed during Katrina. The Army's battle with gravity is going to get interesting this week.