Featured Work
The Chief Engineer’s Legacy
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.
The Corps vs Mother Nature
We just want the Corps to do its job and speed the floods — all the way to the Gulf.
The Morganza Spillway and the Maginot Line
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.
Dereliction of Duty
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…
Mississippi River Commission Testimony: Kelley Williams in Baton Rouge Apr 2017
I appreciate this opportunity to testify again. Last year I talked about flooding at our farm in the Natchez reach 20 miles above the Old River Control Complex. Today I’m talking about flooding in the Baton Rouge reach below Old River. I hope to show that ORCC can reduce the height, duration, and frequency of floods – and to persuade you that it should.
No January flood this year.
The record January flood was unusual. But major floods aren’t. Mississippi has had seven in the last ten years.