Comite River Diversion Canal Project

I know the corp acquired some rural land that is very close to metro BR that I would love to be able to deer hunt on.

Admittedly I don't know enough about it to formulate a solid opinion one way or another. What I do know, however, is when you get 20-30 inches of rain in three days over the same locations, you're going to see catastrophic flooding regardless of what man-made preparations have been put into place. I don't think the Comite River Diversion Canal would prevent it.

Ascension Parish is spending millions along with the ACE to extend the Laurel Ridge Levee in the northeastern section of the parish from St. Amant northward to just south of Port Vincent. Bill Roux once told me during a conversation I had with him a few months ago that the extension of the levee would protect people west of the levee from another 1983 flood but would NOT protect against another 2016 flood.

My point is you can spend all the money in the world but when mother nature dumps enough on you, you're going to have severe problems. People just need to buy flood insurance and be prepared because eventually it will happen.

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It shunts water from the Comite basin to the Mississippi basin

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Where exactly do you mean? Does it go into the Mississippi River?

What if the MS river was high like it is right now?

There was flooding along Thompson creek, which flows directly into the river.

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What if the MS river was high like it is right now?

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It doesn't go directly into the river, just into its basin. If the Mississippi is high enough to prevent the diversion canal from draining into its basin, everything from Lafayette to Slidell is already fricked.

I live in Central and obviously flooded. This needs to be done, but even as important, the Comite & Amite need to be dredged. They have not since the 50's because of a "Scenic River Act" or whatever it is called.

I live in Central and received 15 inches of water in 2016. I do think that the diversion canal would’ve prevented a lot of flooding but no one really knows. The Comite drains into the Amite on the south end of Central. So basically everything from southern Mississippi, East Feliciana, western St Helena, and half of EBR drains to that point. If they’re able to divert a large percentage of the water that drains from the western side of this area to the MS river I think the chances of flooding for a lot of homes drops tremendously. My home flooded b/c the Amite backed up into it. Not sure if the canal would’ve helped much. But my dad flooded b/c the Comite couldn’t drain. I’m confident it would’ve helped him.

Some dredging would help, but only on the extreme lower end of the Amite Basin. Corps projects on the headwaters of the Amite years ago increased velocity and created scour upriver depositing silt in the lower reaches.

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This needs to be done, but even as important, the Comite & Amite need to be dredged.

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Big time. We'll go down to the Comite in Wadill and the Amite along the tracks in Frenchtown. There is a good bit of man-made trash but a lot of natural debris at both locations.

So the Comite River is a tributary of the Amite River. The confluence (or where they meet) occurs to the East of Baton Rouge near the Highway 190/Florida Boulevard Bridge that connects Denham Springs to Baton Rouge.

By implementing this project, the Lower Basin is hugely improved from a drainage perspective. Flood stages throughout the lower basin (East Baton Rouge, fringes of LP and the Felicianas) would be lowered along the Comite as the water draining into it from its Southern Basin would begin being diverted as a result of the project.

This would mean less flooding along the Comite on the EBR side. Lowered flood stage would also benefit LP in a major, major way.

This is because when the Comite is less strained, there's less pressure on the Amite since the Comite is a tributary. Less water flowing into the Amite at the confluence helps downstream flood stages obviously (from Southern Denham Springs all the way down to Port Vincent). But...it also helps back upstream as well.

That's because the Amite's basin above the Comite can also drain faster and more efficiently since there's a lower level downstream at the Comite/Amite confluence. Which means lower flooding stages through the city limits of Denham Springs and on up through Live Oak/Watson.

As other posters have pointed out, what occurred in mid-August of 2016 was a record-shattering rain event that was-literally-a perfect storm. There is no way to avoid the flooding in some respects. But the level, severity and duration of the event could have been lessened. Not avoided mind you...but lessened.

In short, it would help a huge portion of the 5-Parish Metro Baton Rouge area moving forward for normal rain events from a general drainage perspective.