(Image) Hundreds of FEMA trailers await evacuees from the spillway opening in Louisiana.The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers will open the Morganza Spillway today, unleashing 600,000 cubic feet of water per second and forcing 22,500 people to leave their soon to be flooded homes.
Authorities hope that by opening the spillway they will relieve the swollen Mississippi River and avoid catastrophic flooding Louisiana's two largest cities Baton Rouge and New Orleans.
By opening the levee flood water will be diverted to 18,000 acres of farmland, 11,000 buildings, a wildlife refuge and a small oil refinery in the Atchafalaya River basin.
It would be the first time the spillway, located about 45 miles northwest of Baton Rouge, has been opened in nearly 40 years.
Volunteers and state officials are currently going house to house making sure residents know about the opening and evacuation plans.
The 'trigger' for the spillway opening will be when the flow reaches 1.5 million cubic feet per second at Louisiana’s Red River Landing - expected sometime later today.
Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal told residents in the affected areas to start leaving their homes and said the state has plans with the American Red Cross to provide shelters for evacuees.
Flooding could reach 20 feet in the Atchafalaya basin.
About 2,500 people live inside the floodway, and another 22,500 people and 11,000 buildings would be affected by backwater flooding when the Morganza is opened.
Backwater flooding is water pushed back into streams and tributaries that cannot flow as normal into what will be an overwhelmed Atchafalaya River.
Some 18,000 acres of cropland is expected to be flooded.
Martin Frey, a farmer from Morganza and who is in flood path, said: 'We always felt like there may come a day that it may happen.' Read More
Note: They have the Fema trailers ready is this such a good thing? seeing what happened with the trailers before.
