- BUNCHE'S BEND, Louisiana: Water from the swollen Mississippi River poured over a century-old levee Thursday, flooding 12,000 acres of corn and soybeans despite farmers' frantic efforts to shore up the structure.
Downstream, officials with the Port of New Orleans said the Coast Guard could close the river to ships as early as Monday, halting traffic on one of the world's busiest commercial waterways. After swamping low-lying neighborhoods in Memphis, Tennessee, earlier this week, the rising water is bringing misery to farms and small waterfront communities in Mississippi, Louisiana and Arkansas. The Corps of Engineers is considering whether to open the Morganza spillway, which would flood thousands of homes and acres of farmland along a 160-km stretch in Louisiana but take the pressure off levees and help to protect Baton Rouge, New Orleans and the oil refineries in between. A decision is expected in the next several days.