Moro Bay Flooding Eldoradonews.com
“No lights, no phone, no cars.
It’s primitive as can be…”
For the past two weeks, we on Colvin Island have lived isolated from the rest of the world. The only way to town has been by boat. It’s not unusual for this to happen every few years. Rest assured, if a place has the word, island in its name, there was a time in the past when that place was an actual island. You can bet it will happen again. In fact, this has happened twice this year on Colvin Island due to record floods in May and November.
Both times Mother Nature caught the Corps of Engineers by surprise. They closed off the gates on the Ouachita River dams to prevent flooding the streets of Monroe, Louisiana. Instead, thousands of acres in Arkansas submerged faster than you could say, “Up periscope.”
Sure, it’s an inconvenience, but people in the area expect high water once in a while. It’s part of the price of living in this beautiful and peaceful land. Unlike the greed-mongers and developers downstream, we are smart enough to build on the high ground.
Then there is that what if question.
The Army Corps of Engineers wants to straighten and channel the Ouachita River. They try to force it on us every few years. It’s a political patronage thing. What if the local residents hadn’t organized to beat the Corps’ plan?
This latest flood totally submerged the Felsenthal dam.
From its point of origin in the Boston Mountains, the Ouachita River provides drainage for roughly one forth of the state, 9,000 square miles. Imagine all the water dumped by a tropical storm or hurricane on that area as it flowed South unimpeded by the river’s natural bends and oxbows. With all that water surging downstream at once, you could wave good-bye to Monroe – and several other towns.
In the real world, water and weather never behave as they do in the laboratory at Vicksburg. It’s dangerous when so-called experts tamper with God and nature’s design.
______________________________________________________________
