What will happen when Katrina's rains (to the north) flow back to N.O.?

[RPM]

The track of the storm (up the Ohio Valley to Pittsburgh) means that all the rain that will fall up here in the next few days will ultimately flow back down to New Orleans. How the hell are they going to stop all this water - can they slow the flow of the Ohio, Missouri and Mississippi upstream in hopes of getting the pumps up and the levees rebuilt?

How are they going to get this 'bowl' in which the city rests cleared?

[kick-ass-bob]

1. Someone correct me if I'm wrong (yeah, like that wouldn't happen anyway)

But the Mississippi River's levees are still intact, no?
So if they hold, the water from the other rivers would just follow that one, right? And not get into N.O.?

[Inland]

5. I think that's right

The lake Ponchatrain hurricane levees broke, not the river levees.

Besides, even if there was a huge rain, it'll take weeks to run off, and by that time, the rain will spread out over weeks.

[htuttle]

2. It's going to flood worse

Short of attempting to dig a diversionary canal (to handle the entire Mississippi...probably not possible) around the city, all that water is going to flood back through.

You can't slow the flows of the rivers upstream, or you'll flood somewhere else. The water has to go somewhere.

Gonna be months before New Orleans is inhabitable again. No way around it.

[jpak]

8. Can't they divert a portion of MSR down the Atchafalaya basin????

n/t

[Jersey Devil]

3. Just saw an interview of former head of Army Corps of Engineering

on this very subject. He said that the flow down the Mississippi from upstream rains could further compromise the levee system. He explained that if a levee is wet for too long it begins to undermine and fail and that even though the Mississippi River levees did not fail they could fail if subjected to wet conditions for too long.

[KeepItReal]

4. Miss. River is not the source of flooding now, Lake Pontchartrain is

<eom>

[Jersey Devil]

7. Actually, the lake is the indirect source - it is the canals

The levees along the canals have given out, not the levees along the lake itself.

[KeepItReal]

10. Lakefront Airport is part of the Lake now. No canals there

<eom>

[Joy Anne]

6. good point!

As of now, the hurricane path will stay in the Mississippi watershed all the way to New York state.

[alfredo]

9. One county in South Western Ky has had over a foot of rain.

That will probably end up in the Cumberland River, then the Mississippi.