Morgan City, Louisiana it soon replaced the Loganberry of California. According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of , of which is land and , or 4.03%, is water. If the Mississippi River were to experience a major course change in the vicinity of the Old River Control Structure or Morganza Spillway, the main channel of the river would likely enter the Gulf of Mexico near Morgan City instead of New Orleans. As of the census of 2000, there were 12,703 people, 5,037 households, and 3,394 families residing in the city. The population density was 2,166.5 people
2011 Mississippi River floods U.S. President Barack Obama declared the western counties of Kentucky, Tennessee, and Mississippi federal disaster areas. For the first time in 37 years, the Morganza Spillway was opened on May 14, deliberately flooding of rural Louisiana to save most of Baton Rouge and New Orleans. Fourteen people were killed in Arkansas, with 392 killed across seven states in the preceding storms. Thousands of homes were ordered evacuated, including over 1,300 in Memphis, and more than 24,500 in Louisiana and Mississippi, though some people disregarded mandatory evacuation orders. The flood crested in Memphis on May 10 and artificially crested in southern