I am a great fan of Led Zeppelin and mentioning one of their lesser-known tunes here would be appropriate. “When the Levee Breaks” is the song, and of course, that is what we are hoping does not happen anywhere along the course of the Mississippi River as the crest flows southward.
Here it is folks. Video of the opening of the Morganza Spillway earlier this afternoon. Video compliments of WAFB TV.
Today, the opening of the Bonnet Carre Spillway to capacity was completed to relieve the pressure off the Mississippi as she rose to flood stages all along her levees this past week. As of this writing, she is breaching levees and flooding farmland in the northeast portions of Louisiana. This spillway is about 65 miles northeast of Bayou Dularge.
Fiesta de Mama de Cinco – Mexican food on the bayou?
In the spring of 2010, my email box was inundated with writers looking for the softer side of the story of the Deepwater Horizon explosion and following oil spill disaster. These seekers of a different angle flocked to my bayou to interview my shrimping neighbors. As a wetland advocate, I wondered how I could use this man-made disaster as a platform to further the cause of education and awareness.
It became clear to me early on that most of the journalists who arrived at my door really had no clue about our culture and way of life. So, if they wanted a story about how the oil spill had impacted us, then they must humor me and allow me to educate them about this vanishing ecosystem and its people.
What these well-meaning journalists needed first was a foundational perspective from the standpoint of a population of coastal communities who were suffering yet one more blow to their way of life. As a woman who lives, works, and fishes here, I could give them that perspective, which was simply this:
This oil spill was not an isolated disaster for the people of coastal Louisiana. It was like being kicked when we were already down. And here’s why.
Bayou Woman is cooking blackened red fish and trout!