re: If the Mississippi River changes course, how will this affect the north shore?

quote:

---

I think Morganza will have to be opened as well as blowing levees up north that flood farmland to slow the movement of water down the MS River.

---

I've always loved the idea that some people's property is worth less than others.

Flood yours to protect mine, even though I built in a flood zone along a river that's been diverted by man so my land could be dry until its not.

Fact is, one way or another, the landscape of Louisiana is going to change. Maybe the river corrects, maybe the New Madrid quake, whatever. But we're spending countless dollars and effort to try and force our will on one of the largest rivers in the world to prevent the consequences our our own poor planning from coming to pass.

It's like every thing else in Louisiana. We can't get ahead because we're still paying the price for the idiots in our past.

quote:

---

They wouldn’t let it change course.

---

You act like they can stop it.

Currently (no pun intended) they are stopping it with the Old River Control Structure. In 1973 they (the "brilliant" Corps of Engineers) almost lost the structure - overnight.

If that structure (and the ancillary infrastructure) goes, the Miss. River will go down the Atchafalaya - and it won't be returning to today's channel.

The big losers won't be homeowners on the Northshore. The losers will be the plants along the Lower Miss. River that have docks for ship and barge traffic and use the river as a source of cooling water - not to mention New Orleans' loss of drinking water - and the loss of Morgan City (due to massive flooding from the higher stages) and the loss of scores of pipeline river crossings (due to the resultant deeper Atch. River channel).

quote:

---

The Mississippi River in Baton Rouge is already rising.

---

The river is already at flood stage and we are already under flood warnings for the Mississippi at Red River Landing and Baton Rouge. I figure it's gonna be like last year where we're under constant flood warnings until June.

I love when people say the river will never change its course because the Corps won't let it. It's always a timesaver when the fricking idiots speak up and identify themselves up front.

If you’re worried about this, just move to Morgan City. You’ll be fine there.

quote:

---

Slidell will be a shithole.

---

This is the answer to "what if the sun comes up tomorrow?"

quote:

---

If the Mississippi River changes course

---

Louisiana will stop getting St.Louis/Illinois dead bodies.

quote:

---

...it won’t just be catastrophic to South Louisiana, it’ll be catastrophic to the entire nation.

Someone who actually knows what he is talking about. Astonishing.

---

It won’t be catastrophic for the nation. The nation will adapt and move on.

Some will be winners. Some will be losers.

But catastrophic is laughable.

Ok wishcaster.

quote:

---

All the refineries, chemical plants, and grain facilities south of the Old River Control Structure will instantly become virtually useless and our national economy will collapse in a matter of days.

---

horeshit

quote:

---

How was any of this managed before the 1900s? 18/1700s?

---

It wasn't an issue until Shreve cut Turnbull's Bend and then the Great Raft was broken. The Atchafalaya wasn't deep enough or steep enough to capture the Mississippi until the logjam was broken. Increased flow from the Red after the logjam was gone scoured the Atchafalaya and deepened its channel so it was a steeper path to the Gulf than the Mississippi's current riverbed below Old River. The steeper path is now enough to capture the Mississippi through the Lower Old River. Silting every year of the old channel exacerbates the problem and makes the gradient between the current riverbed and the Atchafalaya steeper and steeper, making it harder and harder to contain the river. This all happened from around 1830-1840 or so.