From CNN’s article about flood prevention efforts in New Orleans:
“The Bonnet Carre Spillway was partially opened on Monday … in order to keep the volume of the Mississippi River flows at New Orleans from exceeding 1.25 million cubic feet per second,” the Corps said. But the muddy water had already exceeded that speed, with a flow of 1.36 million cubic feet per second by Wednesday night, authorities said.
To put that in a bit of context, that’s 38,500 cubic meters per second. The Jacqueline Kennedy O’Nassis Reservoir in Central Park is 3.8 million cubic meters. So a volume of water approximately equivalent to Central Park’s reservoir is flowing through New Orleans… every minute and a half.
Advertisement
