First bay of Louisiana spillway opens, in attempt to lower river level

I just saw footage from my birthplace in Arkansas that shows the casino at the Helena bridge to be flooded. This flooding has destroyed so much of those that had so little. I pray that the decisions that are made will in some way protect the least of these as well.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers opened the first of potentially several bays of the Morganza spillway on Saturday afternoon, a move intended to spare some areas from severe flooding while redirecting water into others.

"We think there is a successful operation going on right now," Col. Ed Fleming, the Corps' New Orleans District Commander, told CNN an hour after the first floodgate was opened.

Fleming explained that the difficult decision to open the spillway, and similar ones made in recent weeks, is being done to address a historic excess of water in the Mississippi River system, including its tributaries.

On Saturday afternoon, the river was cresting near Helena, Arkansas, at 56.4 feet -- 12.4 feet above the flood stage, the level at which the river may begin flowing over its banks -- the National Weather Service noted on its website. That crest, or high point of water, was moving slowly and steadily southward.

The move in Morganza, about 115 miles northwest of New Orleans, will lower anticipated cresting levels -- as well as lessen the potential for severe flooding caused by things like overtopped levees and cracks in flood-control structures -- along the rising Mississippi River and divert water from Baton Rouge and New Orleans. But it will flood parts of low-lying south-central Louisiana.

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