Louisiana Floodgates Opened
Sunday, May 15, 2011 at 5:13PM Floodgates along the Mississippi River were opened Saturday, transforming hundreds of miles of farmland in minutes into lakes as Louisiana residents and animals move to high grounds to protect them from the flood.
The Morganza Floodgate was opened for the first time in almost 40 years, diverting water from the river into the basin's swamplands, backwater lakes and bayous to save larger cities in Baton Rouge and New Orleans from severe flooding.
There are 125 gates, which are being opened slowly to give residents and wildlife the chance to escape and to maintain the integrity of the spillway itself.
Moments after opening the spillway, a wall of water three times the weight of Niagara Falls spewed into smaller waters and tributaries, changing the reality for residents in smaller towns farther south of the river.
New Orleans District Commander Colonel Ed Fleming tells ABC that it will still be weeks before engineers begin to assess the new landscape and declare emergency warnings.
