Flooding in Louisiana

Flooding in Louisiana
Introduction
Louisiana has problems with flooding. The Mississippi River borders the East Side of the state and often floods due to precipitation. Other for reasons flooding includes dam failure or land problems. The flooding has a major affect on the people in the state since they must . deal with the water and all of its damage.   The scope of the problem is precipitation. Hurricanes can hit Louisiana and cause flooding in the lower Mississippi. Also heavy rains often hit the state. "A slow moving weather system dropped large amounts of rain over northern Louisiana…"(FEMA, Feb 1, 99).   The amount of time in which rain falls is an uncontrollable factor causing the state tobe well prepared for all types of flooding. Dams are a good way to help the flooding. Flooding is an earth science related problem in Louisiana.

Physiographic Province
Louisiana lies in the Mississippi River valley and borders the Gulf of Mexico. The problem flooding areas are those closest to the Mississippi River and the delta. The other states that touch the river are Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, Illinois, Missouri, Tennessee, and Arkansas.
New Orleans is a city that is very vulnerable to flooding because much of
the city is below sea level.   The below sea level parts of the city must be keep dry by constantly pumping water into the Mississippi or to the sea, otherwise those areas would flood from groundwater alone.   Even the portions of New Orleans that are not below sea level are a part of the vast Mississippi flood plain.   Flood plains are places where rivers flood
during normal conditions.   Dam-like ridges form along the banks of rivers on flood plains and under normal conditions keep the river in its channel.   During floods rivers flow over the tops of levees and flood the flood plains that lie adjacent to the river channel.   Man has constructed channel walls to "beef up" the natural levees to protect the flood plains.   However, all of New... [continues]

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