Flood will deal blow to struggling oystermen~Nikki Buskey

Projections show Morganza Floodway opening would threaten more than a dozen communities~Mark Schleifstein

Morganza Spillway flooding certain whether or not gates are opened

Obama OKs flood help
~President Barack Obama authorized emergency funding, equipment and other assistance Friday for 22 Louisiana parishes that could be affected by Mississippi River flooding before the end of the month.

N.O. well prepared for high water levels but other areas concerned ~WWL
~"It's a very, very, very high alert status," said John Barry who sits on the state board in charge of flood protection in the New Orleans area. Barry says because of the nearby spillways that divert water from the Mississippi and the solid construction of area levees and seawalls, the metro area is prepared for a flood fight. "This is the safest spot in the entire river because there are all those floodways that take water out of the river, both above the city and even Bohemia below the city. That limits the amount of water that goes by here."

~Hat Tweet @ LeveesOrg~Work has begun on London Ave Historic Plaque! Today volunteers mounted the post in cement. http://yfrog.com/h06eyuuj

All Along the Spillway~Louisiana Rambles~Bonnet Carre Spillway Public Access Information

New Orleans trumpeter Shamarr Allen expands musical boundaries

After Birds Point: The Army Corps’ Missouri Floodway Boondoggle
~Michael Grunwald
~On Monday, I temporarily suspended my longstanding jihad against the Army Corps of Engineers to defend the agency’s controversial decision to blow up a Mississippi River levee and flood 130,000 acres of Missouri farmland. The situation upstream remains scary, but it would be even scarier if the Corps hadn’t done its legal and ethical duty.
But now let’s return to my regularly scheduled jihad, because the mess in Missouri is shining a spotlight on one of the most outrageous Corps boondoggles: a $100 million slice of pork that even internal Corps memos have described as “swine” and “a bad project. Period.”
It was justified through blatant data-cooking by the Corps, shut down by an angry federal judge, and allowed to die by an embarrassed Bush administration. Inexplicably, the Obama Administration has brought it back to life. Hopefully, the events of the last week will kill it for good.

Corps makes plan to open spillways
~Amy Wold
~A request to use the Morganza Spillway north of Baton Rouge to divert some of the water from the rapidly rising Mississippi River could be made as early as Friday, said Col. Ed Fleming, commander of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ New Orleans District.
During a Thursday news conference, Fleming said a decision on whether to ask for permission from the Mississippi River Commission President Maj. Gen. Michael J. Walsh to open the Morganza Spillway will be made Friday or Saturday. Walsh is also the commander of the Corps’ Mississippi Valley Division in Vicksburg, Miss.
~Wikimapia of Old River Control Structure

Bonnet Carre Spillway will open Monday as Mississippi River swells
~Rising Mississippi River poses threat to Louisiana oyster trade

~Bonnet Carré Spillway in 2008, at appx the 4th day of a 31 day release.

Question: What will we learn from the spillway openings? Answer: Nothing ~LaCoastPost

Jeremy Alford on how a cash-poor state is planning to deal with potential record floodwaters on the Mississippi River ~Gambit

Coast Guard closes stretch of Mississippi
~"It's going to be nasty," said Bob Bea, a civil engineer at the University of California-Berkeley who investigated levee failures in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina in 2005. How bad it gets depends on how well the flood protection systems have been built and maintained, he said.
Bea said he is concerned because some levees across the U.S. have been built with inferior dirt, or even sand, and have been poorly designed."The standards we use to build these things are on the horribly low side if you judge them by world criteria and conditions," he said. "The breaches, as we learned in New Orleans, are the killers."

Mississippi Delta Begins To Flood
~Memphis urges hundreds to flee ahead of flooding

Refiners watch rising Mississippi, operations normal

Commentary: Impressions of Cairo and the flood's racial undertow

Left Behind Party...and not my Left Behind ~American Zombie

La Serenissima: Venice
~He Said/She Said NOLA

The Good Times Keep Rolling ~Blackened Out

~Aphasia Novella, further tales from Editilla's House of Piety

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Bonnet Carre spillway could open Monday as "massive amount of water" heads down Mississippi River

Morganza Spillway may be opened next week to divert Mississippi River

State prepares for rising river

Some residents evacuating Vidalia as area braces for MS River flooding

Major flood project advances in Houma
~Nikki Buskey

Terrebonne Parish residents prepare for possible opening of Morganza Spillway

Mississippi floodwaters surge in Memphis, but crest is still days away

Mayor Mitch Landrieu earns Seal of Approval for 60 Minutes Segment ~Levees.org

Mitch Landrieu suspends Edwin Hosli of NOPD, Public Works Director Robert Mendoza without pay

Traffic camera bill could shoot a $12 million hole in New Orleans budget
~Mark Moseley, The Lens

New Orleans charter schools taking their time to set up attendance zones

Just so I’m completely clear on this…
~Disenfranchised Citizen

House votes to expand drilling in Gulf
~Alex Woodward, Gambit

Sponsors Of Oil-Drilling Expansion Bill Received $8.8 Million In Industry Contributions

Bayou Teche Brewing Showcased at SAVOR ~The Beer Buddha

Happy Cinco de Mayo: Marinated Fajitas ~He Said / She Said NOLA

BigRedCotton: brass band showcase tonight at Hi-Ho

Tonight! Cinco de Mayo Party w/ Dirty Bourb, Glagow & Vox & da Hound

The New Orleans Levee's Road Home to Best Picture of the Year
~Hollywood, it seems, has found what many in New Orleans and Louisiana have known for some time now – what happens in New Orleans and Louisiana seems to wind up happening in the rest of the country next. What else can possibly explain Tinseltown’s fascination with filming here?
Sure, some might point to the massive tax credits filmmakers get to shoot in a place with remarkable locations, but given the themes of many of Oscar’s best picture nominees this year, it seems undeniable that Hollywood has found that New Orleans serves as a microcosm for the rest of the nation these days. With that in mind, The Levee again this year handicaps the choices for best picture, provides a synopsis of the nominees and, at the end, we reveal our choice for best picture of the year.

John Barry discusses previously unreported details on London Avenue and 17th Street Canal breaches ~Levees.org

Jindal gives $10M for Morganza
~Tri Parish Times

Terrebonne flood threat rises
~Nikki Buskey

Rising river raises channel concerns

Dixie Brewery's structural integrity under review ~WVUE

The King is dead. Long live the Kingram ~moosedenied

Well Hello~Hungry Termite

Controversy Dogs ‘Treme’
~birds, bark, leaves and lizards

Wednesday Music: Rated Z for Frank Zappa! ~Slabbed

New Orleans Air Show and its death-defying stunts this weekend

Chaz Fest 2011 Today!

Marcia Ball today at Lafayette Park

The Fortin Street Stage, JazzFest From the Front Porch~Mark Folse

Louisiana flood fight begins as Mississippi rises ~WWL

Corps of Engineers prepares for Bonnet Carre Spillway opening~Matt Scallan

John Barry: Blowing the levee is not some wild idea drawn up on a napkin ~Levees.org

Missouri Levee Exploded By U.S. Army Corps Of Engineers

~Editilla Specticulatas~ John Barry, author the book "Rising Tide", the definitive history of the Great Flood of 1927, states with the Corps of Engineers that this was designed into the system as a result of that deluge. Yet I believe that he isn't addressing all the "Flood Control" infrastructure built afterwards, on the upper MS, MO, AR rivers as well as all those reservoirs that helped flood Iowa and Wisconsin in 2008. Wasn't all that built After they designed this floodplain release valve in southeast MO? Does the Corps work then have a causal relationship to the problems we're having today? Can anyone help me out with this please? John Barry, what say you?

Blowing Up Birds Point: The Army Corps of Engineers Gets One Right
~Michael Grunwald

Missouri farmland swamped after levee breach to help Cairo, Ill.
~Tuesday May 3, 2011--The town of Pinhook, Mo. is flooded as water fills the Birds Point-New Madrid floodway after the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers created a breach in the levee with explosives on Monday night. David Carson dcarson@post-dispatch.com

Update: Levee detonation lowers river but triggers new suit

River crest may pass ’27, sandbags likely for downtown Baton Rouge, LA
~Amy Wold

WELCOME TO THE NEIGHBORHOOD; Hubba Hubba Tattoo vs Noise Fest 7
~Lord David

NOPD commander ignored regulations in traffic camera detail work

St. Bernard launches program to remove slabs

In this episode of Magnum J.D.: Baldwin and Contogouris file another lawsuit against Bull Durham and Magnum ~Slabbed

Here's something to contemplate
~Liprap's Lament - The Line

Corps of Engineers decides to blow up Missouri levee

City of New Orleans, Editilla returns.
I am posting the Ladder for the 1st time online on the train via Verizon VCAccess thru my Android phone. Such capability is a game changer in my relationship to Rail Transit. This is the way to go, but we can do better. Still, here we are watching the flooded farmland race by as we show it to our Gentle'rillas. It's been a long time coming y'all know. You've heard all about it right heah.
Thus begins my true journey home to work on Piety House, or House of Piety... my new 100+ year old duplex in the bywater. I got it at a foreclosure auction in Jan. Don't worry, no old ladies were harmed in the making of this mortgage. I will be chronicling the restoration on a blog soon, but for now we plan to just swing the crowbar this week and get into the bones.

I'd vowed to not move back, unless I could drive away from the next Flood. I haven't had a Driver's License in nearly 20 years. I just don't really drive, and hence have developed a working knowledge of this particular train and sites along the way. I know where Billy Joe McAllister jumped off the Tallahachie Bridge. We roll over farmland that my grandfather bought and sold back when the river flooded this Delta in 1927. Yes, THAT flood.
~I've taken the Train from Memphis to New Orleans probably a hundred times, since The Flood easily25-30. I've never seen such water across the delta as on this trip today. Every creek and river is swollen to the brim. Above, 7am flooded farmland just south of Memphis.
~Breakfast near Greenwood, MS.

Where's the death certificate?
~Library Chronicles

Better late than never: Wishing bin Laden a speedy trip to hell
~Mark Moseley, The Lens

Planned drilling targets BR-area shale deposits ~Amy Wold

Nunez Community College to host talk on the Isleños of Louisiana

NOLA Brew History website collects local beer lore

History: Treasure Hunting
~Pauline's Pirates and Privateers

Chalk One Up for the Good Guys ~Blackened Out

Immersion Therapy: Jazzfest Flexes its Muscle~He Said/She Said

New Orleans, Haiti share cultural history at Jazz Fest ~Defend New Orleans

Chaz Fest helps fill mid-week gap in New Orleans Jazz Fest

Cairo: On the Eve of Destruction?
~American Zombie

Cairo mayor issues order for mandatory evacuation
~Pumps Stay Ahead of Last Night's Rainfall; River on Stand at Tiptonville, TN

Don't blast levee open, Missouri pleads to the Supreme Court as farming town is cleared of people

~May 1, 1886, became historic. On that day thousands of workers in the larger industrial cities poured into the streets, demanding eight hours.
About 340,000 took part in demonstrations in Chicago, Milwaukee, Detroit, Cincinnati, St. Louis, Baltimore, Washington, New York, Philadelphia, Boston and other places. Of these nearly 200,000 actually went out on strike. About 42,000 won the eight-hour day. Another 150,000 got a shorter day than they had had before.
~Editilla Solidellas~
Notice that New Orleans wasn't on the list. At about this time, rumor had it, the Bosses were the ones threatening to strike, desperate to do whatever it took to get the local workers to work even 8 hours labor!

Debunking the Bohemia Spillway myth ~James Gill

FEMA trailer residents face $800 monthly fine starting today
~Michelle Krupa

Oil tax benefits back in political spotlight ~Katerine Schmidt

~From the series: "Porches in the Hood"~Polly Jackson

Fontainebleau State Park
~Judy B, NOLAFemmes

Happy Beltane Everyone!

Jazz Fest Day 2 Photos ~Gambit