Levees Break, Mississippi River Flooding Videos

UPDATE: Blog reader "Anonymous" writes the following in regards to the Mid-South Farmer Article: "It is not a mainline Mississippi River levee; it was meant to be overtopped during high river stages. The Federal Government bought a flowage easement across the forebay for just this reason."

UPDATE: Here is some incredible footage of the Mississippi River flooding in Greenville, Mississippi yesterday, courtesy WXVT. The ironic thing about all this flooding, of course, is that the rainfall has been below normal during the last week (map) -- it's all from heavy rain to their north.

VIDEO CAPTION: There is extensive flooding of homes along the Mississippi River near Greenville, Mississippi today (Tue, 4-8). As you can see in this video taken along Lake Beulah in Bolivar County and Lake Ferguson in Washington County, the water is up to the rooftops of some homes and mobile homes. The current river stage, as of 2 p-m CT today (Tuesday), is 55-point-4 feet. Flood stage is 48 feet at the Greenville (MS) gauge. The Mississippi River Board has closed the river levees to boat traffic except for those who have businesses located in the area. This is forecast to be the second highest flood on record in Greenville.

ORIGINAL REPORT:

I don't believe that I did Monday's article about the Mississippi River flooding justice. While I latched on to an MSNBC article about the New Orleans levees, other levees in Louisiana were in fact breaking under the pressure of the river's height on local media. For example, here's an article from the Mid-South Farmer website that shows and desribes the break of the Morganza Spillway in Pointe Coupee Parish, Louisiana. In addition, below is raw footage from the Baton Rouge area courtesy WAFB, also shot on Monday, which appears to show a levee already broken but doesn't mention it in the caption so I am unable to obtain further information on it.

NOTE: VIDEO MAY HAVE ADS; VIDEOS NOT AVAILABLE ON WIRELESS DEVICES

So, it appears that some levees have broken, although not in New Orleans, and the famous Spillway there has not yet been opened (as of yesterday).

Speaking of which, Forum user jdrenken sends this site with photos of the Bonnet Carre Spillway. It is interesting to see it up close, and they even have some recent pictures of the flooding. Remember you can view it from above on Google Maps too.