Elliot City, Louisiana City was abandoned in 1939 when its residents were forced to leave due to the construction of the Morganza Spillway. This area is inside the floodway levee system and was entirely underwater when the floodway gates at the Morganza control structure were opened in 1973 and 2011 to relieve the high water level of the Mississippi River. The area is subject to being flooded if the control structure gates are ever opened again. The Elliot City area is a short distance south, southwest of a now inactive U.S. Army Air Corps bombing range used as a training area for aircraft
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