Well as I sit here and write this today the Mississippi River continues to rise and cause extensive damage along its way. As some of you that may read this have family being affected or will be affected by the flooding of the Mississippi River, so do I.
The Morganza spillway has been opened. They did this in order to spare Louisiana's more populated areas from floodwaters, again. By doing this though it will affect at least 4,000 residents in the Atchafalaya Basin. Two gates on the Morganza spillway were opened Saturday, the first time in 40 years they have been opened. An additional two more gates were opened Sunday morning. Authorities plan to open as many 25% of the spillway's 125 floodgates in the next few days hoping to spare Baton Rouge and New Orleans. Ok fine I get that what about those 4000 residents, possibly even more if the levees do not hold up. There are people as far south as Morgan City, La. that are preparing to be flooded. The seven parishes that will be affected by the opening of these floodgates are: Pointe Coupee, St. Landry, St. Martin, Iberia, St. Mary and Terrebone. In my opinion these floodgates and spillway were opened way too late to really help.
According to the Corps. of Engineers the spillway and the floodgates will have to be open for weeks. Now I am no engineer but I can tell you that those levees are not built to with stand that amount of water for that amount of time. Some of the levees will fail. Remember this folks as it will be brought back up shortly. The river is forecasted to crest Sunday in Arkansas City at 53 feet--16 feet above flood stage. The weather service said that the river was cresting Sunday in New Orleans at 17 feet. The crest is where the river is at its highest point. For some reason I dont believe that the people around New Orleans have seen the crest just yet.
Ok ok your saying this is all great info but we can get this from CNN or FOX News right. This is and has the potential to be a very severe natural disaster. Yes that is right I said natural disaster because it was nature that caused all of the rain fall that is causing the river to overflow at record heights. From some research that I have been doing as well as speaking to a few people from that area, there is a big concern that some of these people that have flood insurance will not covered by it. Why? Well from what I have found out it is because some of these residents are protected by levees. So? Well some of the flood insurance carriers are saying that if the levees break and flooding occurs and destroys their residence, it was not caused by a natural disaster. The damage would have been caused by the levee breaking, which in turn would be blamed on a engineering failure/problem.
Remember what I asked you to remember from one of the earlier paragraphs? These levees are not designed to withstand that amount of water for that amount of time. The Corps. of Engineers have said that it will take a considerable amount of time, in some cases weeks, until the river falls back below the flood stage. So let me get this straight. A natural river is overflowing with water from natural rain. This natural floodwater will unfortunatley destroy peoples homes and belongings along the way. This natural floodwater will cause levees, that were designed to hopefully stop natural floodwaters, to break. After the levees break the natural floodwater will again cause more damage as it moves across residential areas. Now somehow I cant grasp how that is not a natural disaster.
I hope that no one every has to go through a natural disaster, like a raging flooding Mississippi River. But if you do and you have flood insurance I hope they do not try and play the "This was not caused by a natural disaster" card.
Please feel free to tell me how you feel about this or any of our topics here. You can agree or disagree with me, either way you opinion is heard and matters. L2
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