Ole Man River . . .

It is that time of year again.  My wife's nephew, Paul, teaches school in upper Pointe Coupee Parish.  He told me the river was rising fast, the Mississippi River.  He must cross the bridge at Morganza that spans the Morganza Spillway every day on his way to Batchelor, Louisiana.  That is where he teaches school.

Upper Pointe Coupee is unique to the flood control of the lower Mississippi River.  It lies below Red River Landing where all the Old River flood control structures exist.  A billion dollars worth of flood control structures lie just above the upper Pointe Coupee Parish.  It is where generally the Mississippi dumps water into the Atchafalaya River.  The mother river for the Atchafalaya is the Red River flowing down from Texas and Oklahoma through central Louisiana.  But it is the Mississippi that keeps the water flowing in the Atchafalaya River, the Red River is not much of a contributor to the over all water flow.  Old Man river is the king.

The Mississippi River measures flood stages from Minnesota south to the delta, key points along the river where the river depth or flow is carefully monitored by the US Corps of Engineers.  The river is divided into two major districts referred to as the upper and lower districts.  The division point is Vicksburg, MS.  The lower district is under the Corps of Engineers in New Orleans where my father worked for years.

The stages are located a key points where in general the river is restricted.  There are many locations between those stages where the river can spread out and absorb a great deal of water.  But the river is restrained at Cairo, IL, Memphis, TN, Vicksburg, MS, Red River Landing, LA and Baton Rouge, LA south to the mouth of the river.  Cairo is special place as on one side is the Mississippi and the other side is the Ohio River, a tributary to the Mississippi.  The Missouri River flows into the Mississippi just about St. Louis, MO many miles above Cairo.

The flood periods of the lower Mississippi are April and June.  The April rise is caused by the thaw of the Ohio valley.  The June rise is caused by the thaw in the Rocky Mountains that feed the Missouri River.  Neither one of those rises pose a threat to the lower Mississippi.  But when the thaw is early in the Rockies and late in the Ohio valley, all hell breaks loose in the lower Mississippi River valley as it must absorb all that water at once.

But even worse, just below the Old River flood control structures lies upper Pointe Coupee Parish, an enclave of territory surrounded on all sides by protective levees.  It naturally drains to the south and at that point there are pumps to lift excess water into the Atchafalaya River.  There is no natural drainage, no where for the water to go by itself.  The pumps can not handle a crevasse.  More that one flood of that region started with crevasses along the Atchafalaya side of upper Pointe Coupee.  The last time that occurred was the infamous 1927 flood.  And it happened several times before that.

So upper Pointe Coupee is always in a perilous position and a high water along the lower Mississippi  is a threat.  It is farm country, and Pointe Coupee is not overly populated but those in upper Pointe Coupee are sitting in a dangerous location.  Far more dangerous that say a levee failure at Lake Providence.  There is just no where for the water to go.  It will fill up like a great big lake and take a very long time to eventually dry out.  In the mean time the residents have no where to go, their homes and farms will be under water!

Below upper Pointe Coupee lies the Morganza Spillway but it truly protects the lower Mississippi valley from Morganza to the Gulf of Mexico.  Above upper Pointe Coupee is the Old River flood control structures designed primarily to keep the Atchafalaya from capturing the flow of the mighty Mississippi River.  I have driven across the structures and levees with water on both sides of the levees.  

I would not want to be the Army Corps of Engineers New Orleans District commander and have to make the decision to blow the levees at or just below Red River Landing.  There is a potential if doing so to protect say upper Pointe Coupee could result in the Mississippi being diverted down the Atchafalaya.  That could be disaster leaving Baton Rouge and New Orleans ports high and dry.

From Red River Landing to the mouth of the River is perhaps 200 or so miles of river bed when going down the Mississippi.  If you go down the Atchafalaya to its mouth, well maybe the river bed is a 100 or so miles,  Thus water would flow faster and the Atchafalaya could capture the flow of the Mississippi.  That is the reason why so much has been spent to control the flow of water into the Atchafalaya from the Mississippi.
              
Jerome Kern's song Ol' Man River comes to mind.  He says, "Ol' Man River he must know something but he don't say nothing, he just keeps rolling along."