Elliot City, Louisiana City was abandoned in 1939 when its residents were forced to leave due to the construction of the Morganza Spillway. This area is inside the floodway levee system and was entirely underwater when the floodway gates at the Morganza control structure were opened in 1973 and 2011 to relieve the high water level of the Mississippi River. The area is subject to being flooded if the control structure gates are ever opened again. The Elliot City area is a short distance south, southwest of a now inactive U.S. Army Air Corps bombing range used as a training area for aircraft
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