Mississippi River back from the river, it is normally dry on both sides. Even if it failed at the crest during a severe flood, the flood waters would have to erode to normal water levels before the Mississippi could permanently jump channel at this location. During the 2011 floods, the Corps of Engineers opened the Morganza Spillway to 1/4 of its capacity to allow 150,000 ft/sec of water to flood the Morganza and Atchafalaya floodways and continue directly to the Gulf of Mexico, bypassing Baton Rouge and New Orleans. In addition to reducing the Mississippi River crest downstream, this diversion reduced the
U.S. Route 190 the Beauregard Parish Jail, Beauregard Parish Courthouse, and the DeRidder Commercial Historic District. US 190 runs concurrently with US 171 to Ragley, where US 190 parts with US 171 heading east. From Ragley, the two-lane highway heads nearly due east almost parallel to I-10 until Opelousas. US 190 crosses the northern reach of the Atchafalaya Basin near the Morganza Spillway en route to Baton Rouge. From Baton Rouge, US 190 passes, in places divided, through Denham Springs, Albany, Hammond, Robert, Goodbee, Covington, Mandeville, before reaching the eastern terminus at Slidell. The stretch between I-12 south of Covington and the intersection