Mississippi River flood warning back on again

by Mark Schleifstein, The Times-Picayune
Tuesday April 15, 2008, 12:17 PM

The National Weather Service has again issued a flood warning for New Orleans, after the Lower Mississippi River Forecast Center predicted the river will hit 17 feet at the Carrollton gauge on April 22.

Blame it on the northerly winds that brought record cold temperatures to the area this morning, said senior hydrologist David Welch.

Those winds increased the speed of water traveling down the river, which means river crests will occur more rapidly in Greenville, Vicksburg and Red River Landing, above Baton Rouge.

With southerly winds expected over the next few days in New Orleans, combined with slightly higher tides, the water will be squeezed higher towards the official flood stage, he said.

While the official flood stage is at 17 feet in New Orleans, floodwalls protect the area to 20 feet of river height.

And it's likely that the Army Corps of Engineers will open additional bays in the Bonnet Carre Spillway over the next few days to deal with the increased water flow, said Major Tim Kurgan, spokesman for the corps' New Orleans District office.

"We started Friday with 38 gates and added 46 on Saturday," he said. "The river was at 16.4 feet at the gauge today, and we're not planning on opening any more today.

"But because we don't want the river flow at Carrollton to exceed more than 1.25 million cubic feet per second, we may open more during the next few days," he said.

Corps and local levee district officials are patrolling levees on both sides of the river to watch for sand boils and other water leaks, but none have been found to be threatening levee safety so far, officials said.

Posted by wallstreet on 04/15/08 at 12:53PM

Flood Warning seems kind of serious for a news blurb. Not a flood watch, but warning.

About leaks: "none have been found to be threatening levee safety so far." Such a relief.

Am I missing something? What do we do if the flood warning is shown prudent by a flood to follow? Got anything more for us than a warning? Any indication that we're more prepared than we were in '05? Shall we wait for leaks and go from there? I guess we can't say you didn't warn us.

Maybe I'm just overly sensitive to news about levee breaches. I'll go back to Jazzfest food listings.