The flood-swollen Mississippi River began moving through part of the Bonnet Carré Spillway, north of New Orleans, on Jan. 10 as part of a strategy to “make room for the river” and avoid more flooding, which had damaged parts of Missouri earlier.
That day, a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers crane started lifting the 11-ft wooden “needles” from the first of 20 bays to divert the river to Lake Pontchartrain and, eventually, the Gulf of Mexico, bypassing New Orleans and limiting flow there to 1.25 million cu ft per second. Further, the move would hold the river crest to 17 ft, safely below the 20-ft levees.