Earliest spillway ever

Fun times

The official forecast holds the river at 17 feet through mid-January in New Orleans on the assumption that the Army Corps of Engineers will open the Bonnet Carre Spillway in St. Charles Parish to divert part of the river's flow to Lake Pontchartrain. The corps will hold a news conference at 3:30 p.m. Tuesday to announce its plans for the spillway and also to announce when it will enter Phase 2 of its flood fight program.

This would be the earliest that the spillway has ever opened, officials say. The corps' decision will be based on when it expects the amount of water flowing in the river to reach 1.25 million cubic feet per second at the Carrollton Gage, and on studies they have been conducting of the potential environmental effects of opening the spillway.