As the Army Fights the Mississippi River, Who Is Winning?
Flooding in Louisiana People look at the flooded Atchafalaya River during a mandatory evacuation on May 15, 2011 in Krotz Springs, Louisiana, after the Morganza Spillway floodgates were opened Mario Tama/GettyThe river is trying to escape the path that humans have determined for it, and increasingly it is doing so The ongoing flooding along the Mississippi River is the worst the region has seen in recent memory--all three of the river's three major spillways are open at the same time for the first time ever, diverting flood waters from New Orleans and one of America's major fuel refining corridors. Other areas aren't so lucky; water flowing from Louisiana's Morganza spillway (one of the big three) is flooding the Atchafalaya River basin, displacing some 4,000 people. Scenes of inundated towns, rooftops peeking above the water line, are playing out from the upper Midwest to the Gulf of Mexico. But while the 2011 floods...