Morganza Spillway Basin. In such an event, the water level of the Mississippi, high enough to overtop the Spillway, would already be flooding some areas in the Basin downstream of the spillway, due to increased flow through the ORCS and the ORCAS, as well as possible overtopping of levees near the spillway. This flooding, plus any additional water from a Morganza Spillway release, together determine the total extent of flooding throughout the Atchafalaya Basin during a major Mississippi River flood. At risk in the Atchafalaya Basin are Morgan City (population 13,500), various smaller populated places, many farms, thousands of oil and gas
Morganza Spillway was expected in the Atchafalaya Basin regardless of the choice made regarding the Morganza Spillway, the Corps decided to start the 2011 diversion by opening the spillway a bit less than described in scenario 1a (21%, not 25%) The Governor of Louisiana, Bobby Jindal, had meanwhile sent a letter on May 4, 2011, to Robert Gates, the United States Secretary of Defense, requesting that the National Guard be deployed under Title 32 of the United States Code status to respond to record water levels in Louisiana, where there was "a significant probability that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers [would]