Morganza Spillway enters the Morganza Floodway, which extends from the spillway at the Mississippi River south to the East Atchafalaya River levee. The floodway, long and wide, includes a stilling basin, an approach channel, an outlet channel, and two guide levees. From there, diverted water enters the Atchafalaya River Basin Floodway near Krotz Springs, Louisiana, and continues to the Gulf of Mexico. In an extreme flood event, a major release of water from the Morganza Spillway into the Morganza Floodway and Atchafalaya Basin inundates not only the floodways themselves (between their levees), but extensive additional areas of southern Louisiana throughout the Atchafalaya
Spillway Spillway A spillway is a structure used to provide the controlled release of flows from a dam or levee into a downstream area, typically the riverbed of the dammed river itself. In the United Kingdom, they may be known as overflow channels. Spillways ensure that the water does not overflow and damage or destroy the dam. Floodgates and fuse plugs may be designed into spillways to regulate water flow and reservoir level. Such a spillway can be used to regulate downstream flows – by releasing water in small amounts before the reservoir is full, operators can prevent sudden large releases