The Mississippi River continues it's slow methodical march to the sea. Swollen this year by a large snow melt and plenty of rains in the nation's mid-section, she is breaking records and leaving destruction from Missouri/Illinois, down through Tennessee, flooding Memphis and now Arkansas, Mississippi and northern Louisiana. Soon she will arrive in record levels at Baton Rouge and New Orleans.
For us here in the deep south, the levees and other protections developed since the big 1927 flood will keep most safe. The problem is the river is still rising and moving fast, very fast. The first big move, made earlier this week, was to open the Bonnet Carre Spillway. That massive structure is moving Mississippi River water into Lake Pontchartrain. Tomorrow the other shoe drops with the opening of the Morganza Spillway north of Baton Rouge, not opened since 1973. This floodway will divert great quantities of Mississippi River water into the Atachafalya River and the surrounding flood plain. Literally hundreds of thousands of acres of farmland will be ruined, not to mention many people's homes and businesses and the possibility of the entire city of Morgan City.
For the good people of southeast Louisiana, this is a big blow in light of the BP oil disaster of a year ago and the continuing recovery from Katrina and Rita in 2005.
So I simply ask for prayers for this great state and her good people. Once again we ask for the intecessory help of Our Lady of Prompt Succor!
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