Thousands are fleeing ahead of the man-made floods Thousands have evacuated the US state of Louisiana after floodgates were opened on Saturday to relieve pressure from the swollen Mississippi River.
More floodgates are to be opened in the coming days, for the first time in several decades.
The man-made floods will damage thousands of homes and hundreds of thousands of acres of farmland.
Officials say this is the only way to save more populated areas along the river like Baton Rouge and New Orleans.
Most residents heeded the warnings and headed for higher ground; by Sunday, some areas were virtually empty as the water from the Mississippi River slowly rolled across the Atchafalaya River basin, the Associated Press news agency reported.
Opening the Morganza Spillway floodgates is set to inundate up to 3,000 sq miles (7,770 sq km) of land in an attempt to protect large cities along the Mississippi River, which forms a large section of the border between Louisiana and Mississippi states.
About 25,000 people and 11,000 buildings could be adversely affected.
It will be at least a week before the peak of the Mississippi River arrives at the spillway, where officials opened two massive gates on Saturday and another two on Sunday. There are 125 gates in total.
Fed by rainwater and the spring thaw, the Mississippi and its tributaries have caused massive flooding upstream, and officials have said the flooding in Louisiana is the worst since 1927.
Water will flow south, but slowly to give people enough time to leave before the flood waters reach them, officials say.
The flood waters are expected to inundate homes and farms in the state's Cajun country under an expected 10-20ft (3-7m) of water.
The Morganza Spillway, 45 miles (72km) north-west of Baton Rouge, was last opened in 1973.
The spillway stands above the Mississippi's normal water level, and comes into play only when the Mississippi is already swollen and endangering the surrounding areas.
By opening its floodgates, engineers are able to control the flow of the flood waters, diverting them around Baton Rouge into the Atchafalaya river basin, a low-lying area of central Louisiana.
Over several days, the water should run south to Morgan City - where workers are rushing to reinforces levees - and then into the Gulf of Mexico.
Opening all 125 gates on the spillway would release 600,000 cubic ft of water every second.
Seven states are affected by the continuing floods.
This article is from the BBC News website. � British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/int/news/-/news/world-us-canada-13411006
No comments:
Post a Comment