'Unprecedented' Water Prompts Opening of Mississippi River Spillway

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Associated Press

‘Unprecedented’ Water Prompts Opening of Mississippi River Spillway
May 10, 2019 0:26 AM
Associated Press

NEW ORLEANS —
Army Corps of Engineers officials in Louisiana aim to open a historic flood control structure above New Orleans on Tuesday for an unprecedented second time in one year.

“It’s an unprecedented amount of water that’s coming down,” David Ramirez, chief of water management for the Corps’ New Orleans District, told reporters Thursday.

The request for authorization from the Corps’ Mississippi Valley Division comes as floods across the Midwest have caused billions of dollars in damage to homes, farms and businesses.

Continued rains in the Midwest and Ohio Valley and floodwaters from the upper Mississippi River are heading down the Mississippi, National Weather Service hydrologist Jeffrey Graschel said. In addition, he noted, storms are expected to dump 5 to 10 inches (13 to 25 centimeters) of rain in parts of Louisiana and Arkansas.

Read more: https://www.voanews.com/a/unprecedented-water-prompts-opening-of-mississippi-river-spillway/4911755.html

[riversedge]

1. Seems there is much risk to the wildlife.............

Moby Solangi, director of the Institute for Marine Mammal Studies in Gulfport, Mississippi, said he’s concerned about the spillway opening, because it means that polluted fresh water will flow into the Sound, a nursery for dolphins and endangered Kemp’s ridley sea turtles.

More of those animals died in April than in any April over the past five years, he said, with 28 dolphins and 57 sea turtles found dead. Solangi said many of the dolphins had lesions on their bodies from exposure to fresh water, which also damages oyster reefs and blue crabs, on which the turtles feed, and plants that are food for animals lower on the food chain.

He said 73 dolphins and 79 sea turtles have died so far this year. That compares, for example, to 82 dolphin deaths in all of 2016, the highest annual total in the past five years.

“We haven’t even started the year and it’s 73,” he said.

Davis said the Corps has received “very inconclusive” reports about the deaths from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

“The wildlife concern is very real,” but the trigger point of 1.25 million cubic feet per second is set in law, he said.

[NickB79]

2. If only climatologists would warned us of this!

I mean, a little heads up, maybe an international panel on climate change and it's effects? I'm sure we would have listened.

But nope, nothing. Damn climatologists!

[The_jackalope]

3. Droughts, floods, hurricanes, wildfires - I wish Mother Nature would make up her mind

But it's a woman's prerogative to change her mind, right?