UPDATE: The Corps is recommending the Spillway reopen on Tuesday, May 14.
This could prove to be a historic year for the Bonnet Carre Spillway located in St. Charles Parish.
Officials with the Army Corps of Engineers are expected to announce this afternoon that the spillway will be opened for a second time this year, something that's never happened since it was constructed. It's all because the Mississippi River has been slowly rising again following rains upstream, likely necessitating the need to funnel the water off to Lake Pontchartrain.
It was near the 17 ft. above sea level mark yesterday at the Carrollton Gauge in New Orleans, a height that, along with the speed of the river, justifies opening the spillway to head off the potential for downstream flooding.
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