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The Atchafalaya Basin, or Atchafalaya Swamp (/ ə ˌ tʃ æ f ə ˈ l aɪ ə /; Louisiana French: Atchafalaya, [atʃafalaˈja]), is the largest wetland and swamp in the United States. Located in south central Louisiana , it is a combination of wetlands and river delta area where the Atchafalaya River and the Gulf of Mexico converge.
Water diverted at Old River flows into the Atchafalaya Basin, first entering the Red River, then continuing down the Atchafalaya River to the Gulf of Mexico, bypassing Baton Rouge and New Orleans (see diagram). The Morganza Floodway, between the Mississippi and the Atchafalaya Basin nearby downstream, is normally closed. It can be opened in an ...
The Atchafalaya Basin system comprises three floodways. Two of these, the West Atchafalaya Floodway and the Morganza Floodway, are at the northern end.Together with the Atchafalaya River, these floodways are designed to pass flood waters into the third component, the Lower Atchafalaya Basin Floodway, which is 833,000 acres (3,370 km 2) in size and is bounded on the north by U.S. Route 190, on ...
This diversion was deemed necessary to protect levees and prevent major flooding in Baton Rouge and New Orleans, with the tradeoff of exacerbating flooding in the Atchafalaya Basin, and will also reduce floodwater stress on the Old River Control Structure upstream. This was the first opening of the spillway since the 1973 flood. [7] [34] [35] [36]
Two egrets on the limbs of a cypress in the Atchafalaya flood basin. The Atchafalaya River meanders south as a channel of the Mississippi, through extensive levees and floodways, past Morgan City, and empties into the Gulf in Atchafalaya Bay approximately 15 miles (24 km) south of Morgan City. Since the late 20th century, the river has been ...
Significant flooding was unfolding in the New Orleans area, forecasters warned. The National Weather Service declared a flash flood emergency on Wednesday night for the I-10 corridor in the New ...
Atchafalaya Basin. The wetlands of Louisiana are water-saturated coastal and swamp regions of southern Louisiana, often called "Bayou".. The Louisiana coastal zone stretches from the border of Texas to the Mississippi line [1] and comprises two wetland-dominated ecosystems, the Deltaic Plain of the Mississippi River (unit 1, 2, and 3) and the closely linked Chenier Plain (unit 4). [2]
The 1973 flood was notable for nearly causing the failure of the Old River Control Structure above the Mississippi River Delta, which would have sent the Mississippi's main channel flowing into the Atchafalaya River and bypassing most of the delta region including the major port of New Orleans, Louisiana. [6]