Mississippi River floods among the largest and most damaging along the U.S. waterway in the past century, rivalling major floods in 1927 and 1993. In April 2011, two major storm systems dumped record rainfall on the Mississippi River watershed. Rising from springtime snowmelt, the river and many of its tributaries began to swell to record levels by the beginning of May. Areas along the Mississippi itself experiencing flooding include Illinois, Iowa, Missouri, Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, Mississippi, and Louisiana. U.S. President Barack Obama declared the western counties of Kentucky, Tennessee, and Mississippi federal disaster areas. For the second time in 38 years, the Morganza
Morganza to the Gulf to 4 in favor of the Water Resources Development Act, an enormous water projects bill containing the levee system. Congress has not passed a WRDA bill since 2000, and authorization for the Morganza project has stalled annually with it. Next WRDA will head to conference committee, where the House and the Senate will iron out any differences between their versions of the bill. Last year, WRDA died in the waning hours of the Senate stuck in conference committee. But Jerome Zeringue, executive director of the Terrebonne Levee and Conservation Board, said that the May passage of WRDA and a lack