MORGANZA FLOODWAY WITH ONE GATE OPEN

From MSNBCNews.

"CHARLIE DARWIN" - THE LOW ANTHEM

"Charlie Darwin" - The Low Anthem (Official Video) from The Low Anthem on Vimeo.

"MORGAN CITY, LA, IN LESS STRESSFUL TIMES"

Click on the picture for the larger view.

Poignant photo from the past posted on Facebook by my friend Georgianne Nienaber. Used with Georgianne's permission.

Morgan City is located near the mouth of the Atchafalaya River. Parts of the city are protected by levees. Other parts are not. See map at my post below.

MAP OF AREA THAT MAY BE FLOODED BY OPENING MORGANZA FLOODWAY

Click on the map for the enlarged view, and then click again for magnification. For those of you who may be concerned about us, you will see from the map that we are not in a zone which will be flooded when the Morganza Floodway is opened tomorrow. Thibodaux is just south of the center of the map.

The floodway will be opened to send more water down the Atchafalaya River basin in order to lower the volume of water in the Mississippi River from above Baton Rouge and New Orleans to prevent the river from overtopping the levees and to relieve pressure on the levees to prevent breaches which would flood a much larger number of people than those who will be flooded by opening the floodway. I feel sad for those who will be inundated, but even if the Morganza Spillway gates were not opened, certain areas near the Atchafalaya River would flood, because of water spilling over the top of the floodway gates. Water is lapping at the gates and leaking through them already.

I hope what I've written makes sense. Thank you for your concern.

A SHORT BREAK

Since I'm feeling a bit weary of blogging, I'm going to take a few days off. No black dog has got hold of me, nothing's wrong, I just want a break. I know I've made similar statements on other occasions and ended up back blogging rather quickly. Who knows? That may happen again. We shall see.

GRANDPÈRE'S POTATO CROP

Digging out the potatoes.

GP harvested about 40 pounds of potatoes.

The uprooted potato plants.

The potato plot.

The entire scene.

Grandpère likes for me to brag about his garden, and I'm happy to do so. I consider that I am fortunate to have access to so many fresh-from-the-garden vegetables and fruit. The produce, along with fresh fish, and meat from the hunt, such as venison, wild pork, and various wild birds make for delicious eating.

JESUS AND MO - SENSE

Click on the image for the large view.

From Jesus and Mo.

NO TO AVG SECURE SEARCH

Many of you have heard me moan about my creaky old computer. We need to buy a new machine, and, for me, it's not the expense so much as the bother of starting over on a new computer and learning its ways. When we purchase a new computer, the hard drive of the old machine will be cleaned and will belong to Grandpère, and we won't have to argue over who gets to use the computer. He won't have nearly the amount of information on his computer as I have, so the old one with my stuff removed should serve him quite well.

Lately, the old girl (our computer is a girl) has been running extremely slowly. I'd noticed that when I downloaded the latest version of Firefox that AVG Secure Search came up on the right of my toolbar. When I tried to remove the AVG add-on, the entire toolbar disappeared. What I did not know is that AVG Secure Search had been made my default search engine. Still it bugged me having it there, because I didn't want what I thought was an unnecessary add-on. I went online to the forums to try to find a fix, and the instructions were either so complicated that I couldn't follow them, or they called for a download to remove the function, so I still had no solution, because I'm wary of downloads which I know nothing about.

Hurray!!! Yesterday, I found the solution myself, and it was quite simple. There was a tiny arrow next to the the words "AVG Secure Search" in the search bar in the right hand corner of the toolbar. When I clicked on the tiny arrow (the very, very tiny arrow), a drop-down menu appeared, and that's when I discovered that AVG Secure Search had become my default search engine. When I changed to Google and deleted AVG Secure Search as a choice, my computer speeded up amazingly. AVG Security has served me well for a couple of years, but this sneaky bit of adjustment to my computer, which I neither wanted or needed, annoyed me beyond measure. I hate it when any program clandestinely loads my computer with functions that I don't want or need. Take note, AVG Security!

THE THREAT OF THE RISING MISSISSIPPI RIVER

From NOLA.com:

Louisianians haven't lived though this dangerous a threat from the in more than a generation -- and that's an emergency that compels officials and residents alike to be prepared. It also warrants a full emergency declaration from the federal government.

Thousands of people across South Louisiana were evaluating their risk and making preparations Monday, as the Army Corps of Engineers continued taking measures to relieve pressure on river levees and minimize the expected flooding.

Crews began opening the Bonnet Carre Spillway in St. Charles Parish. Communities in the Atchafalaya Basin placed sand bags and alerted residents of possible evacuations if the Morganza Spillway is opened north of Baton Rouge. And Gov. Bobby Jindal directed hundreds of Louisiana National Guard troops to assist in those efforts and to be ready to help victims of flooding.

Corps of Engineers maps forecast flooding in large areas of St. Mary, Assumption, Terrebonne and other South Louisiana parishes if Morganza is opened for the first time since 1973. The corps still was estimating Monday how many homes and other structures may flood. But residents shouldn't have to wait for maps to make preparations. As Gov. Bobby Jindal warned: "If you got wet in 1973, you'll get wet this time. If you nearly got wet in 1973, you'll probably get wet this time."

As Gilda Radner said, "It's always something." Especially lately. One disaster follows another.



The Mississippi River at Rivertown in Kenner, Louisiana

If you turn around and face the other way toward the land, you are looking down, and you see very quickly that without the levee Rivertown and many other areas along the river would be flooded. We walked up a good many steps to get to the top of the levee.



The ship rides high, and the ships will ride higher as the river crests further south. Pray that the levees hold, and pray for the people who will be flooded by the opening of the Bonnet Carré Spillway and the Morganza Floodway.

UPDATE: The opening of the Bonnet Carré Spillway will not cause homes to flood, because the water will go into Lake Pontchartrain and the Rigolets, but it will, very likely, mess up certain of the oyster beds again. The poor oyster fishers have had a rough time of it what with the BP gusher and now the high river.

THE TALKING CENTIPEDE

A single guy decided life would be more fun if he had a pet.

So he went to the pet store and told the owner that he wanted to buy an unusual pet.

After some discussion, he finally bought a talking centipede, (100-legged bug), which came in a little white box to use for his house.

He took the box back home, found a good spot for the box, and decided he would start off by taking his new pet to church with him.

So he asked the centipede in the box, "Would you like to go to church with me today? We will have a good time."

But there was no answer from his new pet.

This bothered him a bit, but he waited a few minutes and then asked again, "How about going to church with me and receive blessings?"

But again, there was no answer from his new friend and pet. So he waited a few minutes more, thinking about the situation.

The guy decided to invite the centipede one last time.

This time he put his face up against the centipede's house and shouted, "Hey, in there! Would you like to go to church with me and learn about God?"

YOU ARE GOING TO LOVE THIS ....


This time, a little voice came out of the box, "I heard you the first time! I'm putting my shoes on!"

Thanks to Ann for my first smile of the morning.