Ground Will Shake and Snakes Will Flee as the Mississippi Drains

  • Army Corps plans to divert the river to ease high water levels
  • The Mississippi is set gush into large part of rural Loiusiana
The Morganza Floodway is nearly three quarters of a mile long and was built in 1954.Photographer: Brian K. Sullivan/Bloomberg
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I was on site in 2011 when the Army freed the Mississippi from a man-made barrier and unleashed it into a large swath of rural Louisiana -- a harrowing trade off that flooded homes and farms to avoid catastrophe in New Orleans and Baton Rouge.

Now, rising river levels due to unrelenting rain mean the long dam-like structure known as the Morganza Floodway may be opened again for only the third time in history.