Army Engineers to Open Louisiana Spillway at 4 p.m. ET. 周一commodities价格？

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he U.S. Army Corps of Engineers will open the Morganza Spillway Saturday at 3 p.m. to ease pressure on the swollen Mississippi River, a spokesman said.


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Floodwater engulfs a home after the Army Corps of Engineers blew a massive hole in a levee at the confluence of the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers to divert water from the town of Cairo, Illinois May 3, 2011 near Wyatt, Missouri.

"It will be a slow, controlled opening," said Ken Holder, spokesman for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which manages the spillway.

The action will inundate some 3,000 square miles of low-lying swamp and croplands in the Atchafalaya River basin in up to 20 feet of water for several weeks, but spare Louisiana's two largest cities from flooding.

On Friday, the president of the Mississippi River Commission, Major General Michael Walsh, ordered the Corps to operate the floodgates when flows reached 1.5 million cubic feet per second at Red River Landing north of Baton Rouge.

As of Friday morning, the last available measurement, flows were 1.45 million cubic feet per second.

Failing to open the spillway could put New Orleans at risk of flooding that, according to computer models, could eclipse that seen during Hurricane Katrina in 2005, when 80 percent of the city was flooded.

About 1,500 people died in the disaster.



In addition to threatening densely populated areas, lower Mississippi flooding could force shutdowns of as many as eight refineries and at least one nuclear power plant alongside the river.

The refineries make up about 12 percent of the nation's capacity for making gasoline and other fuels.

Crops Threatened

About 2,500 people live in the spillway's flood path, and 22,500 others, along with 11,000 buildings would be affected by backwater flooding when the spillway was opened.

Backwater flooding is water pushed back into streams and tributaries that cannot flow as normal into what will be an overwhelmed Atchafalaya River.

Officials in affected areas were going door to door to notify residents in areas likely to be flooded by diverted waters.


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Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal said on Friday the state had plans with the American Red Cross to provide shelters for evacuees.

Some 18,000 acres of cropland could be flooded as waters rise, hitting their crest in about a week and remaining high for several weeks before subsiding Corps officials were expected to speak to reporters at 1 p.m. local time at the Morganza spillway.

The Corps opened the Bonnet Carre spillway last week in New Orleans to allow water to flow into Lake Pontchartrain, and placed sandbags along the Mississippi River's banks.

"I'm not worried, maybe anxious is the right word," said Oliver Hennessey, a professor at Xavier University who lives four blocks from the river.

Copyright 2011 Thomson Reuters. Click for restrictions.

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