Bonnet Carré Open as of this morning

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Cranes atop the weir separating the Mississippi River from the Bonnet Carre Spillway in Norco began pulling long creosoted timber "needles" from the first of 350 bays at about 10:45 a.m. Sunday (Jan. 10), part of a plan by the Army Corps of Engineers to reduce the river's flow as it moves past New Orleans by directing part of its water into Lake Pontchartrain.

Several hundred people, including many families, trekked up River Road in Norco by car and truck -- and by foot atop the Mississippi River levee -- to watch the first timbers pulled from the weir, and the torrent of brownish water flow into the spillway.

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