Storms are random natural events.  The consequences may be aggravated or mitigated by intentional acts of man.

Elam, of course, didn’t know the Corps would restrict the flow.  But he could have predicted the result.  The river would back up, rise, flood the batture, and cause backwater floods on the Yazoo and other tributaries.

We just want the Corps to do its job and speed the floods — all the way to the Gulf.

The Morganza Spillway is supposed to keep the Mississippi River out of Baton Rouge. The US Army Corps of Engineers built it after the epic flood of 1927. It is part of the Mississippi River and Tributaries Project (MR&TP) that’s supposed to protect against another epic flood. But the MR&TP hasn’t been tested by an epic flood. It could be a Maginot Line.

H.R. McMaster’s 1997 book, Dereliction of Duty, exposed our feckless losing strategy in the Viet Nam War disaster. We didn’t fight to win. McMaster says President Johnson and Secretary of Defense McNamara micromanaged the war to elect and keep Johnson in power. Their strategy of limited response and constraining rules of engagement put our military on…

The record January flood was unusual. But major floods aren’t. Mississippi has had seven in the last ten years.

A stunning new map shows the complex network of rivers and streams in the contiguous United States.

The river is primed for another major flood. It has a record 16 foot head start. But there is still time to reduce this – and the odds of a major flood.