re: The Great Flood of 2016: Fill Out Disaster Forms NOW. Link Inside!

Is airline at bayou manchac passable yet?

Yes

Absolutely in my opinion. That's why I was singing the praises of Spanish Lake Swamp yesterday and people were drinking to it.

My brother works for The Nature Conservancy and he told me yesterday what Supernovasky has pointed out. That the swamp area could handle A LOT of water.

He told me to be sure and support The Nature Conservancy and their types of projects in the future. Lol!!!

Furthermore, it sounds like the draining of the swamp in '09, if true, had to help as well.

Springlake is very fortunate that 99% of it is dry.

When I drove by there was water on both sides of bluebonnet across from Alberstsons.

15' not 35'

Yes the blue box to the right reads 35' the one to the left reads 15'

That neighborhood in those pics is lakes of st. Amant

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Spanish Lake is separated from the Bayou Manchac system by the lock/gate system at Alligator Bayou and the Manchac Road levee. That levee system is controlled by Iberville Parish. Iberville Parish (St. Gabriel/Bayou Paul area) wants to keep as much Baton Rouge water out of Spanish Lake as possible. In this flood, their system failed because their levee was overtopped. Otherwise, they would have been happy to keep the flood gate closed, which would keep the EBR water out of Iberville.

Once the water recedes on the Bayou Manchac side, you will see the Iberville authorities open the gate and let the water back out of the lake into Bayou Manchac.

There was a recent controversy over the proper lake levels a few years ago. The Alligator Bayou swamp tour people wanted high water in the lake for their boat tours. Other landowners in Iberville wanted low water in the lake for flood control and a wetland mitigation bank. The "other landowners" won, which is great for Bayou Fountain in this flood because the lake was almost empty before the rains came and it could hold more water after the overtopping.

Having said all of that, there is still danger of more flooding in the Bayou Fountain basin. The water elevation at the I-10 bridge is around 20ft right now. The gauge at Alligator bayou is 11.65. The water is moving slowing through the narrow channel/canyon created when the interstate bridge was built. There is an 8ft+ elevation differential between the two sides of Bayou Manchac separated by I-10. Only when that balances out will the flood risk be completely over for the Bayou Fountain side of things.