Morganza Spillway the Bonnet Carré Spillway can also be opened to help protect New Orleans, many parts of which are below sea level. The Bonnet Carré Spillway, built after the Great Mississippi Flood of 1927, is located well downstream of Morganza, where the Mississippi River approaches Lake Pontchartrain near New Orleans. The Corps uses Bonnet Carré to divert floodwaters into the lake in order to protect the levees near New Orleans. Integrity of the Morganza Spillway, the Old River Control Structure, and nearby levees is essential to prevent the Mississippi from diverting its main channel into the Atchafalaya Basin. Since its completion
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