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Gov. Bobby Jindal said Monday the flood threat for Louisiana has improved as the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers lowered its projections for floods along the Mississippi River.
Jindal said a factor contributing to the revised projections are lower levels on the Ouachita and Red rivers, which diminishes the chance of additional backwater flooding.
Rainfall amounts in the areas drained by the Ouachita and Red rivers are running around 50 percent below normal. That fact alone, said the man who heads local levee efforts, is a primary reason the region isn’t facing conditions seen elsewhere in the state.
John Stringer, director of the Tensas Basin Levee District, said the drought has allowed recent rainfall to be absorbed quickly.
“With the lack of rainfall we’ve had over the past several months, what rain we’ve had lately doesn’t have that great an impact on our river levels,” Stringer said.
A strong storm system that moved across Arkansas and Louisiana three weeks ago prompted the National Weather Service to set the crest of the Ouachita River at Monroe at 39 feet, one foot below flood stage. Stringer said the drought across the region is one reason those projections have been revised dramatically.
“They brought it down to 36, then 34 and now it’s a 30.5,” Stringer said. “The projections further down river - where headwater flooding could be a problem - have also been revised pretty significantly,” Stringer said.
The Ouachita flows into the Black River south of Jonesville and then into the Red River before it joins the Mississippi approximately 60 miles south of Natchez.
Col. Ed Fleming, with the Corps’ New Orleans district said the opening of two flood control structures along the Mississippi have also contributed to the revised crest estimates.
The Bonnet Carre spillway, which takes water from the river and dumps it into Lake Ponchartrain, was opened 10 days ago to relieve pressure on levees in New Orleans.
On Saturday, the Corps began opening gates on the Morganza Spillway, keeping pressure off levees in Baton Rouge and New Orleans by sending water into the Atchafalaya River basin. Jindal said lower levels along the Mississippi have led the Corps to anticipate opening fewer gates along the spillway than originally projected, sending less water through the basin toward Morgan City on the coast.
Gov. Bobby Jindal said Monday the flood threat for Louisiana has improved as the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers lowered its projections for floods along the Mississippi River.
Jindal said a factor contributing to the revised projections are lower levels on the Ouachita and Red rivers, which diminishes the chance of additional backwater flooding.
Rainfall amounts in the areas drained by the Ouachita and Red rivers are running around 50 percent below normal. That fact alone, said the man who heads local levee efforts, is a primary reason the region isn’t facing conditions seen elsewhere in the state.
John Stringer, director of the Tensas Basin Levee District, said the drought has allowed recent rainfall to be absorbed quickly.
“With the lack of rainfall we’ve had over the past several months, what rain we’ve had lately doesn’t have that great an impact on our river levels,” Stringer said.
A strong storm system that moved across Arkansas and Louisiana three weeks ago prompted the National Weather Service to set the crest of the Ouachita River at Monroe at 39 feet, one foot below flood stage. Stringer said the drought across the region is one reason those projections have been revised dramatically.
“They brought it down to 36, then 34 and now it’s a 30.5,” Stringer said. “The projections further down river - where headwater flooding could be a problem - have also been revised pretty significantly,” Stringer said.
The Ouachita flows into the Black River south of Jonesville and then into the Red River before it joins the Mississippi approximately 60 miles south of Natchez.
Col. Ed Fleming, with the Corps’ New Orleans district said the opening of two flood control structures along the Mississippi have also contributed to the revised crest estimates.
The Bonnet Carre spillway, which takes water from the river and dumps it into Lake Ponchartrain, was opened 10 days ago to relieve pressure on levees in New Orleans.
On Saturday, the Corps began opening gates on the Morganza Spillway, keeping pressure off levees in Baton Rouge and New Orleans by sending water into the Atchafalaya River basin. Jindal said lower levels along the Mississippi have led the Corps to anticipate opening fewer gates along the spillway than originally projected, sending less water through the basin toward Morgan City on the coast.
