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
Morganza Spillway still open. All bays were closed on July 7, 2011. The Corps had estimated that it would take opening one-fourth of the spillway’s 125 bays — or 31 bays — to control the flow of the river through Baton Rouge in response to a forecast crest of anticipated on Tuesday, May 17, 2011, which must remain below of water per second through Baton Rouge to ensure the integrity of the levee system. Since Morganza never operated above , the flooding in the Atchafalaya Basin was considerably lower than had been anticipated during the initial estimates of . By May 29,