is so soft that the levee settles after you build it up. So it starts going down, down, down
and then pretty soon the level of protection isn't what it's supposed to be.
So you have to build it up again. So it's a system or a series of stages of construction.
You build it up so high, and then it settles down, and then you build it up again. You
keep gaining a little bit on it each time, but it's a very expensive process.
The same way with the capacity of the main river--it fills with sediment. Then they have
to go and dredge the whole thing out to maintain navigation and to help the flood carrying
capacity of the river. The Corps has diverted a lot of water over into the Atchafalaya
Basin by the Old River Control Structure. You've probably heard about all the problems
they had with that thing, and it almost failed.
Q ..
That was `73 that it almost went and had a lot of trouble back in what,
A
Oh they've had trouble several times there. But `73 was the worst.
They have these facilities, like the Morganza floodway and the Bonnet
floodway.
Whenever they put those into operation, everybody screams and hollers. They don't go
into operation very often, but when they do, then a lot of people get wet.
So then they even have things like the New Madrid floodway, where it's completely
developed agricultural land and that land has flowage easements on it by the Corps to use
it as a floodway when the Mississippi got too high, so they could relieve the pressure on
the levees--let's see where is it? Is it Cairo that is right there?
Q.
It's up there north, yes, it's in Missouri.
A
That's right. Cairo, the main levee on Cairo. If they get enough water, if they don't open
that New Madrid floodway, the stage is going to get high enough so it will overtop the
levee. So with all these people living in the floodway, how are you going to open that
thing?
They have to crevasse it with bulldozers and explosives in order to make the thing work
because the people wouldn't let them put big pipes or gates. So the only way they can [do
it] then [is] to amass a flotilla of equipment to do the job. All those people are going to
know about it before you get there. They're going to be there with their machine guns and
bayonets to stop you.
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