Vacation Part 3

On Saturday we went to a wedding at the Frankleton Louisiana Country Club. Pat and Bob's niece Stacy was getting married. It was an outside wedding on a lake and it was beautiful. Also shown in the pictures are Jaime, Stacey's sister and her beautiful mom Rhonda. The picture of the two guys dancing is part of the wedding party, the one on the left is Stacey's brother Justin. The young couple holding the baby is Pat's sister Annette and her husband Luther. The baby is not hers but she does have 4 children and umpteen gran kids. I am glad her an Pat did not have a baby matching contest. It they had I am sure that I would not be writing this Blog today..ha! After the wedding we went by and looked at the building that use to have a pool hall in it. Bob
had lived there prior to moving to Baton Rouge, the pool room was his business at that time.

Well we are winding down with part 3 of our vacation. I will share pictures of Pats home town, at least what is left in downtown Kentwood Louisiana. The town has basically move out to Interstate# 55. There are a few stores left that are still in business but not very many, these pictures were taken as we were on our way to the disaster towns and also to visit Pat & Bob's aunt's. Also you will see Pat's other brother (the youngest) Jamie, he is as close as you will get to "Larry the Cable Guy". He will keep you in stitches, he is so funny you will hurt laughing.

We left on Monday for a trip to Fulton Mississippi to visit the aunts. On our way we stopped in Wesson Mississippi for lunch. We stopped at a little cafe named HW 51 Cafe, and the food was very good...again when we got it...45 minutes as the girl forgot to turn it in...only us! The owner came over and tried to give us someone else's food, right after that we got ours. As you can see on the front door was a sign for a cool sandwich. I sure did not order it but I think Pat was tempted, right down her alley.(big Elvis fan) After we left the cafe we headed to Starkville to visit the Mississippi St. campus. Wow, was it ever a beautiful campus, rolling land and beautiful buildings. As you can see we took a few pictures of the "Cow Bell Ringing Stadium" note what the sign says about ringing bells.

Now comes one of the saddest parts of the trip. These are pictures of Smithville Mississippi

which was hit by a tornado. The storm killed 15 people and completely wiped out town including the High School. You can see one partial house and a store left. That night we spent the night in Fulton Mississippi. As we were checking into the motel Bob & I struck up a conversation with the desk clerk. We told her that we had just came through Smithville and how sad it was. Her response kept us tuned in to her speaking! She told us that she lived outside of the town and that she was in Florida at the beach when her mom called her and told her. She said her mom said that the town was struck by a tornado but their house was OK (they lived right out of town) but 15 people were believed dead. The clerk told us that she tried to call several of her friends but could not get through. She said it was very frightening and it changed her outlook on life. The week before we got there her class had just graduated at a Jr. College campus in Fulton. I ask her if she was going to attend college and she said she was, maybe Ole Miss. I told her she should to to U of Fla and she said she wished she could that she loved Florida. Right then I knew that this child was going to be very successful in life, very smart. ha...

Tuesday morning we headed out to visit Aunt May (Pats mom's sister) and Aunt Marie who was married to Pats mothers brother. They both are very beautiful Mississippi girls, both in their eighties and full of life. Both have a very good sense of humor and we really enjoyed visiting them. The one picture is Aunt Marie, Pat, Bob and Aunt Marie. The very old picture is of Pats uncles (two) and two Aunts her mom and her grandparents.

When we left there we headed to Nauvoo Alabama, this is the town that Pat was born in. Pats mom & dad where cotton pickers and had followed the crop there, so when the time was right "BAM" Pat was born. As you can see the town is some what closed down but it is still really neat. We did find a new store, a new dollar store has graced the community.

We were going to spend the night in Cullman Alabama that night. What we found was that there were a lot of contractors working on storm damaged property. These people took up most of the rooms what rooms that where available we saw a real case of price gouging. We did decide to eat at a Cracker Barrel there. A funny thing happened to us as we walked to the front door, we founds a small ladies wallet in the parking lot. We gave it to the manager when we went in to let him handle it. As we finished our supper the waitress stop by to tel us that out meal had been paid for. The lady who lost the purse showed her appreciation for our honesty. "Shucks" had I known that I would have ordered a big steak! ha...

The next morning we went up to Heartscelle Alabama to have breakfast with Donald and Emma Dean Ricks. Donald is Martha Ann's brother and Pat and Emma Dean were classmates. Donald is retired from the Army and also a retired pastor. He has served the Lord for most of his life and is now living on a farm in Eva Alabama. Emma Dean has written many books. When we got home there was her latest in our mail box.

After leaving we headed home by way of Tuscaloosa Alabama. I can assure you that nothing can compare anyway with what you saw on TV. Being there just ripped your heart out, it was just horrible. The pictures tell you the entire story of what happened there but not why. We wanted to check one area where our daughter lived when she was in college. Her place was spared but starting on the next lot all the way to McFarland was totally destroyed on both sides of the street. As I looked at Pats face I could see tears in her eyes and I knew what she was thinking. We also checked a neighborhood that Darenda's friend Jennifer lived. It was totally destroyed all the homes with the exception of one home. That neighborhood was close by the hospital.......
Well that is pretty much all of it, we did have a great time at the Garrison's home. There was more that we did, like eating water melon in the back yard and going out to eat at several neat places.

We are Blessed and we hope that you are Blessed also.

“I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. ‘He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death’ or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.”” -Revelation 21: 2-4

Vacation Part 2

On Friday we began our trip to see the Morganza Spillway (Levee). We got off to a shaky start on Interstate 12, there was some kind of wreck or something a mile down the road. After crawling along for an hour we decided to get off and go back and get on the back roads. Traveling along the back roads in Louisiana is an education in it self, especially with Bob & Harold being the tour guides. Oh yea I forgot, we were traveling with Bob & Martha Ann and Harold & Dixie Armstrong. Harold is my adopted brother-in -law and my "political adviser"! We have known them for years and just love being with them, never a dull moment.

Our first stop was for dinner, as the picture shows you, it was a quaint place (that's putting it lightly) and the food was just great (when we finally got it). The name as you can see was "Not Your Mama's Cafe". After our food arrived Harold said the blessing for the food, I must say it put us in the right frame of mind. (can't tell you why). The funniest thing was I guarded the bathroom door which did not have a lock on it. Later we found the real bathroom which was lockable, oh well, "what ever"!

After we ate we started to see what the mighty Mississippi was up to and what the Marganza Levee was doing to the area. Almost all of the water that you see is normally dry ground and the road that we are on actually works as another Levee. You can see that many of the deer were stranded between the flood waters and a 12 foot fence that they could not get over. If they could have, there was no where for them to go. They were on our left and on the right side of us was more water. But with the exception of no where to hide they were alright. They had all they needed to drink and eat as they were stranded in a soy bean field. I will start part 3 tomorrow which will be the tornado disaster areas, Mississippi and Alabama. At the end of this Blog is some information that I researched about the Morganza Spillway, I hope you enjoy reading it.

The Morganza Spillway, between the Mississippi River and the Atchafalaya Basin, shown while open in 1973. Water flows from the Mississippi (upper right) into the Morganza Floodway (lower left).
The Morganza Spillway is a flood-control structure in the U.S. state of Louisiana along the western bank of the Mississippi River at river mile 280, near Morganza in Pointe Coupee Parish. The spillway stands between the Mississippi and the Morganza Floodway, which leads to the Atchafalaya Basin and the Atchafalaya River in south-central Louisiana. Its purpose is to divert water from the Mississippi River during major flood events by flooding the Atchafalaya Basin, including the Atchafalaya River and the Atchafalaya Swamp. The spillway and adjacent levees also help prevent the Mississippi from changing its course through the major port cities of Baton Rouge and New Orleans, Louisiana, to a new course down the Atchafalaya River to the Gulf of Mexico. The Morganza Spillway, operated by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, was opened during the 1973 and 2011 Mississippi River floods.[1][2][3][4][5]
The Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 was the most destructive river flood in the history of the United States,[6] in large part due to the Mississippi River swelling to 80 miles wide in spots.[7] To prevent a repeat of the Great Flood of 1927, and better control river flooding in general, Congress passed the Flood Control Act of 1928 to authorize the United States Army Corps of Engineers to build the Bonnet Carre Spillway (located 33 miles above New Orleans and completed in 1931),[8] the Birds Point floodway in Missouri, and the Morganza Floodway as part of the 1928 Mississippi River and Tributaries Project.[7] The Morganza control structure portion of the project was completed in 1954[7] and subsequently became incorporated into the Mississippi River Commission's 1956 project design flood,[9] which added the Old River Control Structure in 1963 to the protections used to prevent Mississippi River flood.[10] The Flood Control Act of 1965 provided further regulation over the Morganza Spillway's role in Mississippi River flood prevention. A concrete pit called a stilling basin was added at the Morganza Spillway in 1977 "to provide erosion protection after the velocity of water pouring through the open bays during a 1973 flood caused severe scouring of the land behind the bays."[11]

One of the 125 gates on the tail bay side of the Morganza Floodway.
The Morganza Spillway, a 3,900-foot (1,200 m) controlled spillway using a set of flood gates to control the volume of water entering the Morganza Floodway from the Mississippi River, consists of a concrete weir, two sluice gates, seventeen scour indicators, and 125 gated openings which can allow up to 600,000 cubic feet per second (17,000 m3/s) of water to be diverted from the Mississippi River into the Atchafalaya Basin during major floods. The project was completed in 1954.
A highway (Louisiana Route 1) and the Kansas City Southern Railway cross the structure.
The Corps of Engineers maintains the structures and, in times of flood, monitors their piers for scouring and stability. To lift and lower the flood gates, the Corps of Engineers maneuvers a movable crane along the spillway to the particular opening.
Operation during floods
The land on both sides of the Morganza Spillway is above normal river water levels, and usually dry. In order for water to reach the spillway, the Mississippi must first rise well above its flood stage, overtopping its banks. The Corps of Engineers considers opening the Morganza Spillway when the flow of the Mississippi at Red River Landing, Louisiana,[12][13] is greater than 1,500,000 cu ft/s (42,000 m3/s) and rising.[1]


Flow capacity for the Mississippi river in thousands of cubic feet per second.[14]
Water from the Mississippi is normally diverted into the Atchafalaya Basin at only one place, the Old River Control Structure (ORCS), in use since 1963, where floodgates are routinely used to redirect the Mississippi's flow into the Atchafalaya River such that the volume of the two rivers is split 70%/30%, respectively, as measured at the latitude of Red River Landing. During the 1973 Mississippi flood, the ORCS was being damaged due to high flow rates, leading to the opening of the Morganza Spillway to help relieve this pressure. Subsequently, the nearby Old River Control Auxiliary Structure (ORCAS) was constructed, adding additional floodgates for use during major floods.
The Morganza Spillway, about 30 miles downriver from ORCS and ORCAS, is designed for emergency use to divert additional water from the Mississippi River into the Morganza floodway, which merges downstream with the Atchafalaya floodway before entering the Gulf. Diversion of water from the Mississippi's main channel has the effect of lowering water level in the Mississippi downstream of the spillway, helping to relieve stress on levees and other flood control structures both upstream and down. Besides controlling flooding in a given event, the system is also designed to prevent the Mississippi River from permanently altering course down the Atchafalaya River, bypassing Baton Rouge and New Orleans.[1][2][3][4]
Water that passes the Morganza Spillway first enters the Morganza Floodway, which extends from the spillway at the Mississippi River south to the East Atchafalaya River levee. The floodway, 20 miles (32 km) long and 5 miles (8.0 km) wide, includes a stilling basin, an approach channel, an outlet channel, and two guide levees.[1] From there, diverted water enters the Atchafalaya River Basin Floodway near Krotz Springs, Louisiana,[1] and continues to the Gulf of Mexico.
In an extreme flood event, a major release of water from the Morganza Spillway into the Morganza Floodway and Atchafalaya Basin inundates not only the floodways themselves (between their levees), but extensive additional areas of southern Louisiana throughout the Atchafalaya Basin. In such an event, the water level of the Mississippi, high enough to overtop the Spillway, would already be flooding some areas in the Basin downstream of the spillway, due to increased flow through the Old River Control Structure and the Old River Control Auxiliary Structure, as well as possible overtopping of levees near the spillway.[15] This flooding, plus any additional water from a Morganza Spillway release, together determine the total extent of flooding throughout the Atchafalaya Basin during a major Mississippi River flood.
At risk in the Atchafalaya Basin are Morgan City (population 13,500), various smaller populated places, many farms, thousands of oil and gas wells, and considerable swampland. Inhabitants know that the region is a natural floodplain, and the Corps of Engineers issues written notices annually to all interests reminding them of the possibility that it might open the spillway and flood the area. Any decision to open the spillway must be carefully planned to give ample warning and protect life and property. Part of that planning process includes the Corps' preparation of maps known as "inundation scenarios" so that interested parties can discuss how much water, if any, should be allowed through the spillway.[1][16][17][18][19][20][21][22] [23]
During both moderate and severe floods of the Mississippi, the Bonnet Carré Spillway can also be opened to help protect New Orleans, many parts of which are below sea level. The Bonnet Carré Spillway, built after the Great Mississippi Flood of 1927, is located well downstream of Morganza, where the Mississippi River approaches Lake Pontchartrain near New Orleans. The Corps uses Bonnet Carré to divert floodwaters into the lake in order to protect the levees near New Orleans.
Integrity of the Morganza Spillway, the Old River Control Structure, and nearby levees is essential to prevent the Mississippi from diverting its main channel into the Atchafalaya Basin; see "Risk of major course change in the Lower Mississippi River" for further discussion.

Have a Blessed day and I hope you enjoyed this portion of our vacation, stay tuned for part 3.

“For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever.” -1 Thessalonians 4:16-17

WOW! What a Vacation!!!

Pat and I flew to New Orleans Louisiana on May 19th to visit Pats family. We were picked up at the airport by Pats brother Bob and his sweet wife Martha Ann. Web went to a restaurant named Frostops, well known for it Frosty Root beer and great hamburgers.

We left there and headed to our first look at the flooding of the Mississippi River. We went to a levee called the Bonnet Carre Spillway. The information below the pictures will tell you all about the levee. You can see a post that shows 22ft of water, that is normally dry ground. The day that we were there the levee was flowing 316,000 cubic ft of water per second. The pictures will speak for them selves and the information will explain the reason it is open. The picture with Pat and Martha Ann is normally dry out to the Island. The picture on the right is actually the mighty Mississippi river.

The Bonnet Carré Spillway consists of two basic components: a control structure along the east bank of the Mississippi River and a floodway that transfers the diverted flood waters to the lake.The control structure is a mechanically controlled concrete weir which extends for over a mile and a half parallel to the river. When opened, the control structure slightly restricts the flow of the river (at the structure’s location) toward its main channel, thereby causing it to rise in elevation just high enough to flow into the diversion channel; and, with sufficient elevation (or head), to carry the overflow volume into Lake Pontchartrain. The lake’s opening to the gulf is sufficient to absorb and dissipate any conceivable volume of flood flow. Thus, the flood surcharge portion of the water from the Mississippi is divided between the main river and the diversion channel; with the surcharge bypassing the New Orleans metropolitan area, resulting in the Mississippi being lower (through that area) than it could have been; and reducing the stress on the area's levees that line the river. Confined by guide levees, the floodway stretches nearly six miles (10 km) to Lake Pontchartrain, with a design capacity of 250,000 cu ft/s (7,100 m3/s). The spillway is crossed by U.S. 61 and Interstate 10.
The spillway was built in response to the Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 that inundated much of the Mississippi River basin. It was first opened during the flood of 1937, and nine times thereafter through 2011 to lower river stages at New Orleans. The most recent opening began on May 9, 2011, when river levels in New Orleans approached the flood stage of 17 feet (5.2 m).

The spillway is part of the United States Army Corps of Engineers' multi-state plan, called the Mississippi River and Tributaries Project (MR&T), providing flood protection for the alluvial valley between Cape Girardeau, Missouri and the mouth of the river near Venice, Louisiana. Due to the wide expanse of the project and the complex problems involved, the plan contains an array of features. The MR&T Project provides for levees to contain flood flows, floodways such as the Bonnet Carré to redirect excess flows away from the Mississippi and has other aspects such as channel improvement and river bank stabilization for efficient navigation and protection of the levee system. It also involves reservoirs and pumping plants for flood control drainage.

This takes care on the first day that we were there as far as what we saw. I don't want to over whelm you with information so I will do one each day. I will have pictures of the flooding in the Morganza area and pictures of the tornado damage in Smithville Mississippi and Tuscaloosa Alabama. Being there and seeing the disaster was a lot different than seeing it on TV. We need to keep all the folks in our prayers as they try to restart their lives.

Be a Blessing to some one today and GOD BLESS you!

In God, whose word I praise— in God I trust and am not afraid. What can mere mortals do to me?” -Psalm 56:4