Mississippi River rising

• By JOE GYAN JR. AND JAMES MINTON
• Advocate staff writers
• Published: Apr 11, 2008 - Page: 1A - UPDATED: 9:45 a.m.

• Print
• Email
• Save
• Reprints
• Twitter
• Share

• Del.icio.us
• Digg
• Facebook
• Reddit
• 

With the Mississippi River cresting beyond the National Weather Service’s previous predictions and even higher than the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers anticipated, precautions are now in motion to prevent potentially catastrophic flooding along the river’s lower portions.

From Thursday’s closure of ferry operations near St. Francisville to today’s rare opening of the Bonnet Carré Spillway to the south near Norco, both public and private interests began preparations.

The weather service issued its revised flood-crest forecast Thursday for portions of the lower Mississippi River because of recent heavy rains in the Arkansas, Ohio and Upper Mississippi River Valley.

The new forecast raises the crest level at Baton Rouge and Red River Landing — across the river from Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola — by 1 foot and delays the crests five days beyond earlier predictions.

The river is now expected to crest April 21 at 42 feet in Baton Rouge and at 59.5 feet at the Red River Landing.

Without today’s scheduled opening of the Bonnet Carré Spillway — a precaution not taken since 1997 — the river could have possibly crested at or above 17 feet in New Orleans. Flood stage at the Carrollton gauge in the city is 17 feet.

Corps officials said the opening of the spillway will relieve pressure on local levees, lower river stages, and reduce the velocity of the river current from the spillway southward toward New Orleans, which is still recovering from the ravages of Hurricane Katrina’s flood waters.

Ferry closures, detours
State highway officials closed the St. Francisville-New Roads and White Castle ferries before noon Thursday.

The ferry between St. Francisville and New Roads made its last run about 11:30 a.m. when flood waters inched across a stretch of La. 10 that crosses low land between St. Francisville’s bluffs and the ferry landing.

Brendan Rush, a spokesman for the Department of Transportation and Development, said high water on the access road also forced the ferry to close in 1997.

DOTD estimates motorists face a 60-mile detour via the old Mississippi River Bridge in Baton Rouge, while the White Castle ferry closure creates about a 22-mile detour via the Sunshine Bridge.

Starting today, DOTD will move the White Castle ferry to the Plaquemine ferry landing and run two boats every 15 minutes from 5:30 to 9:30 a.m. and 3:30 to 7:30 p.m., Monday through Friday.

Corps buying time, too
On the downstream side of the ferry road, more than 60 workers were filling sandbags to raise part of the ring levee that surrounds the corps’ mat-casting plant operated by Fordice Construction Co. of Vicksburg, Miss.