NEW ORLEANS — The expected opening of the Morganza Spillway on Sunday is the latest chapter in America’s efforts to tame the Mississippi River.
That’s the topic of this week’s Commentary by Eyewitness News Political Analyst and Gambit columnist Clancy DuBos.
The story of man versus nature is as old as civilization itself.
Whether you’re reading “The Old Man and the Sea” or the creation story in Genesis, the ending of that story never changes: Nature wins.
So it is that the Army Corps of Engineers will open the Morganza Spillway this Sunday for only the third time ever.
Heavy winter snows and spring rains have swelled the Mighty Mississippi and its tributaries to levels not seen since the Great Flood of 1927, which changed not just Louisiana, but all of America.
Politicians may grandstand about how letting the river wash away people’s investments and livelihoods will upset man-made social and economic orders, but in the end, nature always prevails.