# Opening Flood Gates?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/opening-flood-gates/581978>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [May 15, 2011, 1:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/opening-flood-gates/581978 "2011-05-15T13:08:20Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 3

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**Author:** ![Musicat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/musicat/32/20189_2.png) [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)\
**Post date:** [May 17, 2011, 11:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/opening-flood-gates/581978/41 "2011-05-17T11:00:46Z")

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> [@Oslo\_Ostragoth](#):
>
> Isn’t the land also subsiding?

Yes, but any good flood control construction should take that into account. I’m not sure it has.

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**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\
**Post date:** [May 17, 2011, 12:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/opening-flood-gates/581978/42 "2011-05-17T12:19:05Z")

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> [@YogSosoth](#):
>
> > [@chacoguy](#):
> >
> > I’ve posted this elsewhere, but the Morganza Spillway has a capacity of 600,000 cubic feet a second. The Colorado River is near here and expected to crest higher than it has in decades. 600,000 cfs is almost _200 times_ what we are expecting.
> 
> How do you even prepare for something like that? :eek:😕

**YogSosoth** :  
**chacoguy** is talking about the Colorado, not the Missisippi. What he is saying is simply that the Mississippi near Baton Rouge has 200 times the flow of the Colorado in Utah where he lives.

The Colorado river is famous in American history. And vitally important in the West both then & now. But it’s really not all that big in terms of flow.  
The Morganza & related structures were designed to deal with the flow of the Mississipi. So yes, the Corps prepared exactly for this.

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**Author:** ![lieu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c2a13f/32.png) [@lieu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lieu)\
**Post date:** [May 17, 2011, 1:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/opening-flood-gates/581978/43 "2011-05-17T13:05:42Z")

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[QUOTE=ElvisL1ves]  
John McPhee discussed the subject very well here. Pre-Katrina but still applicable and still very readable.  
[/QUOTE]  
I was surprised to see the amount from the book that’s presented in that article. Short of reading the book, that’s a pretty good vehicle for conveying the jist of its message.

If you find that interesting though, please don’t hesitate to get the book and immerse yourself in the entire story. Not only is McPhee’s analysis and telling of the efforts to confine the Mississippi fascinating, he also delves into man’s attempts to exert his influence upon the coastal hillsides of California and the volcanic flows of Iceland. In the end, we come to realize the folly of our minuscule efforts in comparison to the might of nature. An alltime classic, McPhee translates scientific truths into a language for the layman. A must read, to be sure.

BTW, many of his other works are equally awesome, Basin and Range, From a Birch Bark Canoe, In Suspect Terrain, etc.

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**Author:** ![lieu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c2a13f/32.png) [@lieu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lieu)\
**Post date:** [May 17, 2011, 1:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/opening-flood-gates/581978/44 "2011-05-17T13:13:13Z")

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Darn it, that’s The Survival of the Bark Canoe.

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