Morganza Spillway stilling basin, and substantial flooding occurred in the Atchafalaya Basin. After the 1973 flood, the structure was restored to its original condition. The issue of opening the gates to keep the Mississippi in its current place was next raised in May 1983. Although the gates were not opened, Louisiana Highway 1 running across the spillway was closed, and the Corps of Engineers built a ring dike and put a blanket of earth across a section of the spillway to contain water pouring underneath it. During the Great Mississippi and Missouri Rivers Flood in 1993, officials decided to leave the gates
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