Army Corps of Engineers has set up a Ustream channel to watch opening of the Morganza Control Structure when they actually go forward with the decision. Anyone who watched the opening of the Bonnet Carre can tell you it’s not exactly the most compelling video in the world. If you live downstream, this is probably horrifying, depressing or both. From a dramatic perspective, a camera set up in Butte La Rose would probably be better. And it would be more interesting for historians and possibly the people about to lose their stuff. Of course, that’s assuming there aren’t one or two folks who decided to stay behind and last it out somehow. (Here’s a link if the embed goes out. It’s going to be dark until they actually do open it)
Author: kenwheaton
MRC President Directs Corps to Open Morganza Floodway
Floodway will be open within 24 hours. After that, water will hit Butte La Rose within 30 hours, creep into Krotz Springs area within 35. Check out the map below.
From the Army Corps of Engineers Operation Watershed Facebook Page:
May 13 – The President of the Mississippi River Commission Maj. Gen. Michael J. Walsh has directed the New Orleans District Commander Col. Ed Fleming to be prepared to operate the Morganza Floodway within 24 hours. The operation will include the deliberate and slow opening of the structure. The inundation will spread slowly over several days as attached map shows.
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If You’re Gonna Break a Man …
… always do it sexually. This real-life parks & recreation guy needs his own show. Or to be locked up.
Regarding Novel-Writing Software
You just fucking need to write. That’s how I replied to someone asking me my opinion on the subject of novel-writing computer apps.
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Just What IS This Morganza Spillway?
Check out the map below. See Morganza? Just north of that a bit, there’s something called the Morganza Control Structure. If (when) they open it, gabillions of gallons of Mississippi River floodwater will roll through and out into the “spillway.”
Look at that green sward that juts to the west, toward the Atchafalaya River, then turns south. Click on the link (or the map) for a clearer picture. Scroll down. You’ll see Krotz Springs on the other bank of the Atchafalaya. (Don’t worry about them. Yet). Keep scrolling.
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Daily Beast’s NOLA writer to rest of Louisiana: “Drop dead”
I’m the type who gets slightly annoyed when people start asking me all about New Orleans, what it’s like growing up there, where to eat, etc. (Answers: Didn’t grow up in New Orleans and let me email my friends who live there to ask them where to eat)
This happens with people who’ve known me for years. This happens with people who’ve read my book, which I think mentions New Orleans all of two times. So, full disclosure, I was prepared to to scream about this The Daily Beast (motto: “We Have More Standards Than Huffington Post: Two of Them to Be Exact”) story based on the headline alone: “Will New Orleans’ Levees Hold?” But hey a website needs traffic and what better to build traffic than to mash up a current catastrophe with Katrina? People love reading about Katrina. Hell, if the Saints played the Super Bowl in 2020, the network would still be falling all over itself to talk about the comeback after Katrina.
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I Told You Those Food Co-op People Were Nuts
My First Thoughts on Death of Bin Laden
My first thought when the ringing phone woke me last night was, “Why the hell am I dreaming about fighting hand-to-hand combat with a horse? Why won’t he just let me ride him?” (Too much Game of Thrones maybe.)
Then, seeing the time and a few text messages all saying, more or less, “Are you seeing the news?” I thought immediately we were under attack. As my friend Corey said, I slept through 9/11, so it would be fitting.
Of the sixteen million possibilities that went through my head before turning on the TV, Osama bin Laden was not a consideration. Indeed, he’d become all but irrelevant–and I think that will become readily apparent in the upcoming days.
So, TV on, Osama bin Laden is dead. Other thoughts.
Hmmm. Attobad is not a small, frontier village near the border with Afghanistan. It’s closer to Islamabad.
Did Barack Obama know this while he was making jokes about Donald Trump at the White House Correspondent’s Dinner? Awesome, though I don’t know how I would have been able to keep my mouth shut in that situation.
How many of these people in D.C. acting like it’s a Super Bowl party are also the type who profess to be horrified when Palestinians do the same thing?
Why is it that Wolf Blitzer, no matter the situation, manages at some point to make himself sound like an asshole? (Last night, he all but shook his head at the guy on the ground outside the White House and gave him instruction on how to use a microphone.)
How long before someone mixes “I Had a Bad Day” with “I Attobad Day”?
How much sleep will I lose watching this foolishness on a Sunday night? (Answer: five minutes. Back to bed. And, thankfully, no more dreams about horse wrestling.)
So Now We Know the Truth About Osama
He was a Decepticon. They buried him at sea. Just like Megatron.
And remember how well that worked out.
Twain Knows Why I Can’t Stand Herman Melville
I’ve long held that Herman Melville is a bad writer, a guy who started out with some interesting stories (Typee, White Jacket) then got so mired down in SAYING things, it became impossible for him to tell a story. Get your knickers in a twist all you like, but with the background plot of Moby Dick, no one should have a problem getting through it. Instead, Melville larded it up with so much blubber it’s difficult for even some more academically minded readers to get through.
It might be different if Melville had a consistent poetry or fluidity to his writing–like Faulkner or Joyce–but no. (And there’s no clearer proof of this than his awful, awful attempts at poetry.)
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KEN WHEATON 