BATON ROUGE, La. — The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is making preparations to possibly open the Morganza Spillway as the Mississippi River continues to swell in Louisiana.
According to Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards, the flood control structure could begin opening as soon as June 2.
“We are encouraging everyone to be patient because this water is going to be with us for awhile at elevated levels, but also to be cautious and safe,” Edwards said at a press conference Thursday.
Edwards met with emergency officials earlier in the day to discuss the possibility of opening the Morganza Spillway. He said the official decision would be made by May 28.
If rain in the Arkansas and Missouri river valleys meets current forecasts, Morganza would be partly opened to keep the Mississippi River from flowing over it and making it impossible to open further, Army Corps of Engineers spokesman Ricky Boyett said earlier. The opening could be as early as June 2, he said.
Heavy rains have fallen across the Middle Mississippi River Valley, or across parts of Kansas, Missouri, Iowa and Illinois. The ground is very saturated across this part of the country, so any rain will just run off into the local rivers, including the Missouri and Mississippi. Extended weather forecasts show this same area could pick up an additional 5-7”+ of rain over the next 5 days. All of this additional water would also drain into the Mississippi River.
The added water will keep the Mississippi River levels very high for the foreseeable future.
If the spillway is opened, it will remain that way for more than a month.
"The expectation is that there will be an abnormally high level of the Mississippi River well into July,” Edwards said. “So if the decision is made to open the Morganza that opening could last until July as well.”
The water it lets through could stick around for awhile, since much of the ground in the areas that would flood is already saturated. One of the main concerns if for the crops that would be lost.
Opening the Morganza would flood 25,000 acres of farmland, Agriculture Commissioner Mike Strain during a press conference with the Governor. He said he has advised farmers to move livestock, crawfish traps and other equipment out of the floodway, and asked the U.S. Department of Agriculture for a disaster declaration.
"We had a lot of farmers that were devastated (in 2011) they lost crops in the field, money was lost there," Pointe Coupee Parish Sheriff Bud Torres Said.
If the Army Corps of Engineers decides to open the spillway, one bay would be opened on each of the first three days to slowly let the water out, giving people and animals time to escape.
The Morganza Spillway was completed in 1954. It has only been opened twice in its history: Once in 1973 and again in 2011. The structure itself is about 4,000 feet long and has 125 bays.