| Show PLAN FLOOD OUTLET FOR mississippi three protective systems under construction MORGANZA LA some day the mississippi now yellow and lazy at its summer low may go on a rampage smash down protective levees at morganza and go roaring down the little atchafalaya Atchafala ya river on a new route to the gulf next year the year after or 20 years from now the river may rise to such a fury according to engineers it may hold to its present bed for centuries but with forests denuded grass and topsoil blown away by dust storms experts are studying the possibility of the atcha balaya becoming the new bed of the mississippi however men from the shore lands of st mary parish along six mile lake to the gulf of mexico are laboring to bring three protective systems to completion as soon as possible projects are coordinated co one is the wax bay outlet the second is a system of channels and levees along the floodway and the third is a spillway 75 miles to the north through which the flood of the future will spill from the swollen mississippi into the atcha balaya the morganza and west atchuta laya floodways flood ways run through a desolate swamp southwest of baton rouge la some of the flood would be diverted into these emergency channels relieving the rich valley below and protecting the pers persons ons in new orleans the wax bay outlet will cross ridge and take the water on a short cut from six mile lake where the morganza and west atchafalaya Atchafala ya floodways flood ways end on to the gulf relieving pressure on the atchafalaya Atchafala ya at morganza machine shreds trees the first big cut between six mile lake and bayou is nearing completion three miles long 45 feet deep and feet wide the outlet is being cut with a machine that shreds stumps and tree trunks and a giant suction dredge grinding out the mucky earth with agitator blades and pumping it through a 25 inch pipe to build levees a quarter mile away the total length of the outlet according to fred voorhies of lafayette la secretary of the louisiana flood control and water conservation commission will be 15 miles from six mile lake to the gulf of mexico with a depth of 45 feet and a width of from to feet when the outlet and other parts of the spillway are complete one tenth of the waters of the mississippi can be diverted in flood time it would then be possible for a flood the size of the one of 1927 to pass on to the gulf of mexico st unnoticed |
