Atchafalaya River Morganza Spillway further downstream is also used to regulate volume. In 1942 part of the flow of the Atchafalaya River was diverted through Wax Lake to the Gulf of Mexico further west. During the 2011 Mississippi River floods, the Old River complex was discharging more than into the Atchafalaya River, and the Morganza Floodway was discharging one-fourth of its capacity. If the Mississippi were allowed to flow freely, the shorter and steeper Atchafalaya would capture the main flow of the Mississippi, permitting the river to bypass its current path through the important ports of Baton Rouge and New Orleans. Despite
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