Mississippi River

Officials hoped that the worst was over in Memphis as the swollen Mississippi River neared its crest there on Monday, while downstream the U.S. government opened a spillway to relieve flooding pressure on low-lying New Orleans.
The river rose to levels not seen in Memphis since the 1930s, swamping homes in low-lying neighborhoods and forcing hundreds of people to evacuate. But officials were confident the levees would protect the city's world-famous musical landmarks, including Graceland and Beale Street, and that no new areas would have any serious flooding.
"Where the water is today, is where the water is going to be," said Cory Williams, chief of geotechnical engineering for the Army Corps of Engineers in Memphis as the river moved to just inches of its expected crest.
Forecasters said it appeared that the river was starting to level out and could crest as soon as Monday night at or near 48 feet, just shy of the all-time high of 48.7 feet. Forecasters had previously predicted the crest would come as late as Wednesday.
Gov. Bill Haslam said late Monday that even though the river is approaching its crest, the flooding is far from over and water wouldn't recede in some neighborhoods for at least two weeks.
"It's not going to get a lot better for a while," Haslam said of the flooding in neighborhoods near the Mississippi's tributaries.
Haslam said he is pressuring the federal government for disaster declaration for Shelby County, which includes Memphis and its suburbs.
The river was moving twice as much water downstream as it normally does, and the Army Corps of Engineers said homes in most danger of flooding are in places not protected by levees or floodwalls, including areas near Nonconnah Creek and the Wolf and Loosahatchie rivers. About 150 Corps workers were walking along levees and monitoring the performance of pumping stations.
In Louisiana, the Army Corps of Engineers began opening the Bonnet Carre spillway 28 miles north of New Orleans Monday morning to divert part of the river flow to Lake Pontchartrain. Opening the spillway has no impact on homes or businesses.
"We are not going to open it up full bore immediately," said Victor Landry, the Corps' Bonnet Carre operations manager. "It will be a slow release."
The spillway has been opened nine previous times, most recently in 2008. The Corps expects to have about half of the spillway's 350 bays open by later this week and it could be fully opened before the flood season ends, Landry said.
The Lower Mississippi swelled to 80 miles wide in some parts during the 1927 flood, causing up to 1,000 deaths by some estimates and leaving 600,000 people displaced.
Peak flows are not expected to reach key Louisiana points for more than two weeks.
The Corps also has asked permission to open the Morganza Spillway on Thursday to ease pressure on Baton Rouge and New Orleans, which would force evacuations of people and livestock as it diverts water through the Atchafalaya River Basin.
Earlier in May, the U.S. government blasted open a Missouri floodway for the first time since 1937, inundating some Missouri farms to relieve pressure on Illinois and Kentucky towns.
Through Mississippi, residents were bracing for potential record crests at Vicksburg on May 19 and at Natchez on May 21 and authorities were warning that up to 5,000 Mississippi residents may be forced to evacuate.
Mindful in Memphis
In Memphis, the homes in most danger of flooding were in areas not protected by levees or floodwalls, including near Nonconnah Creek and the Wolf and Loosahatchie rivers, said Col. Vernie Reichling, the Army Corps of Engineers commander for the Memphis district.
About 150 Corps workers walked along levees and monitored the performance of pump stations along what Reichling called the "wicked" Mississippi.
"There should be no concern for any levees to fail," he said in a downtown park on a bluff overlooking the river.
A carnival-like atmosphere pervaded downtown Memphis as people gaped at the river, which had widened to three miles — six times its normal width — in one spot.
The volume of water passing by in one second was enough to fill a large stadium, Reichling told reporters.
For Cedric Blue, the flooding in his south Memphis neighborhood near the overflowing Nonconnah Creek is a source of frustration and anger.
Blue, 39, has watched as the water engulfed three homes on his street, including that of an older woman who had to be rescued in a boat because she had refused to leave. Blue fears the rising water will ruin his house and his belongings while washing away a lifetime of memories that were created there.
Sunday afternoon, a garbage can floated in the high water near his house. Some feet away, the water had reached more than halfway up a yellow "No Outlet" street sign.

He became emotional talking about how he has about 7 feet of water in his backyard and less than a foot inside the house, which his mother owns. They were in the middle of a remodeling project when the flood hit.

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