From Yahoo/Associated Press:
La. readies to open spillway, flood Cajun country
Army engineers prepared Saturday to slowly open the gates of an emergency spillway along the rising Mississippi River, diverting floodwaters from Baton Rouge and New Orleans, yet inundating homes and farms in parts of Louisiana's populated Cajun country.
About 25,000 people and 11,000 structures could be in harm's way when the Morganza spillway is unlocked for the first time in 38 years. Sheriffs and National Guardsmen were warning people in a door-to-door sweep through the area, and shelters were ready to accept up to 4,800 evacuees, Gov. Bobby Jindal said.
Some people living in the threatened stretch of countryside - an area known for small farms, fish camps and a drawling French dialect - have already started fleeing for higher ground.
In Krotz Springs, La., one of the towns in the Atchafalaya River basin bracing for floodwaters, Monita Reed, 56, recalled the last time the Morganza was opened in 1973.
"We could sit in our yard and hear the water," she said as workers constructed a makeshift levee of sandbags and soil-filled mesh boxes in hopes of protecting the 240 homes in her subdivision.
Elsewhere, workers were trying to shore up other levees, and engineers were tediously inspecting other floodwalls to make sure they would hold.
Reed's family packed her furniture, clothing and pictures in a rental truck and a relative's trailer.
"I'm just going to move and store my stuff. I'm going to stay here until they tell us to leave," Reed said. "Hopefully, we won't see much water and then I can move back in."
Opening the spillway will release a torrent that could submerge about 3,000 square miles under as much as 25 feet of water in some areas but take the pressure off the downstream levees protecting New Orleans, Baton Rouge and the numerous oil refineries and chemical plants along the lower reaches of the Mississippi.
A tough call to make but the right one and Jindal will probably have aid trucks ready to move in when the water recedes.
There is a huge cultural gulf between the urban citizens and the rural Cajuns. Urban people in New Orleans are overly reliant on the government to provide for them. Cajuns just pick themselves up and get on with life.
We hear the sob stories about Katrina (Cat3 at landfall) but not a peep about Hurricane Rita which made landfall a month later. Katrina hit urban New Orleans, people did not evacuate as required, Mayor Nagin had no effective plan to evacuate the city, Governor Blanco did not request Federal aid until three days after landfall (States Rights issue -- the US Government cannot come in, they must be asked). Rita was stronger than Katrina but it hit closer to Texas - Cajun country.
FEMA houses? Some but not not many.
Losses? Sure -- some devastating.
Griping about the gubbinment?
. . . . . . crickets . . . . . .
