DROUGHT! I'VE BEEN TELLING YOU

From the Baton Rouge Advocate:

A statewide burn ban takes effect at 9 a.m. Wednesday, an order issued because of persistently dry weather that has caused severe to exceptional drought over 90 percent of Louisiana, state officials said.
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The ban takes effect on the first day of the June 1-Nov. 30 hurricane season and after weeks of flooding fears from the swollen Mississippi River.

The paradoxical mix of climatic threats raises the possibility of simultaneous federal declarations for both flood and drought in some parishes now coping with Morganza Spillway inundations, state and federal officials said.

Land in these areas may be either in severe or extreme drought conditions or inundated, depending on what side of the levees it lies, the officials said.

I've never known a time when we have gone for months without rain in south Louisiana. About a month ago, we had two brief showers, which the dry ground soaked up immediately and which helped the situation not at all.

I believe in climate change.

IF YOU'RE WONDERING...

A tug boat pushes a barge up the Mississippi River near New Orleans Tuesday May 24, 2011.

From NOLA.com:

Based on a drop in the level of the swollen Mississippi River, the National Weather Service on Friday canceled its weeks-long flood warning for New Orleans and points downriver.

Despite this development for south Louisiana, the weather service’s flood warning remains in effect for points upriver, including Baton Rouge, where levee seepage has led the state Office of Transportation and Development to close River Road’s southbound lane from North Third Street to State Capitol Drive.
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Although the threat to south Louisiana may seem to be abating, the Corps of Engineers declared the Bonnet Carre Spillway closed to recreation, including boating, until June 26.
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Going into that area is dangerous because of the swift current — water is flowing toward Lake Pontchartrain at 293,000 cubic feet per second — and the debris that can get carried along in the torrent.

The damage that this combination can inflict was seen on the railroad bridge in the Bonnet Carre Spillway, where a supporting pier was dislodged. As a result, the legendary City of New Orleans train could get no closer than Hammond to its namesake city, with buses carrying passengers between that city and New Orleans.

The bridge has been repaired.

Water from the Mississippi River washes out part of the railroad bridge that crosses the Bonnet CarrÈ Spillway Tuesday, May 24, 2011.

The folks in New Orleans can breathe a sigh of relief, if not relax completely, about levee failure and flooding from the Mississippi River. The seepage in the levee upriver is worrying. As we saw the other day when we walked along the river in New Orleans, the Mississippi is a mighty river, and she wants to go her own way. Whether man-made controls will work, always involves a degree of uncertainty.

At the link to the Times-Picayune is a fine series of aerial photographs of the Mississippi, the control structures, and other areas near the river.