News World news Mississippi Thousands of homes sacrificed to save New Orleans from Mississippi flood

[sasha031]

Opening of floodgate should also spare Louisiana's capital but leaves farms, oil refinery and wildlife refuge in path of deluge

Army engineers open the floodgate to release water from the swollen Mississippi
US army engineers have opened a key floodgate to allow the swollen Mississippi river to flood thousands of homes and crops but spare New Orleans and Louisiana's capital, Baton Rouge.
The engineers opened one of the 125 floodgates at the Morganza Spillway 45 miles north-west of Baton Rouge on Saturday, sending a flume of water on to nearby fields.
The move, last taken in 1973, will channel floodwaters towards homes, farms, a wildlife refuge and a small oil refinery in the Atchafalaya river basin to avoid inundating Louisiana's two largest cities.

Weeks of heavy rains and runoff from an unusually snowy winter caused the Mississippi to rise, flooding 1.2m hectares (3m acres) of farmland in Mississippi, Tennessee and Arkansas and evoking comparisons to historic floods in 1927 and 1937.
It could take three weeks for the enormous flow of water to pass through a system of levees and spillways to the Gulf of Mexico about 100 miles to the south, said Major General Michael Walsh, president of the Mississippi River Commission.
"It's putting tremendous pressure on the entire system as we try to work this amount of water through the Mississippi river tributaries," Walsh said before the floodgates opened

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/may/15/key-mississippi-floodgate-opened?CMP=twt_fd

[Donnachaidh]

1. wasn't there just some statement from Barbour that the poor are SOL in Mississippi?

So the poor get drowned, even when there is advanced notice of flooding to try to save other cities downstream?

Ya gotta wonder WHY Mississippi voters keep putting these assholes in office.

[sasha031]

2. all Barbour cared about was removing his furniture from his lake side home

as far as I know nothing has been set up for the people.

It is sad how people have aloud themselves to be deceived.

[Tom Rinaldo]

3. There are a lot of poor in New Orleans also

A lot of them live in areas most likely to flood.