You may have seen the picture above when Cajun Boy posted it. What you might not know is that several of these homespun levees have been saving houses near the Mississippi River during these crazy floods:
Many residents of low-lying areas can’t rely on government infrastructure to protect their homes–in fact, in some cases it’s the government that’s flooding them. In an effort to spare population centers like New Orleans and Baton Rouge, the Army Corps of Engineers have opened the Mississippi’s three major spillways–the Birds Point-New Madrid spillway in Missouri, the Morganza spillway near Morganza, La., and the Bonnet Carre just north of New Orleans — the first time all three have been opened up at the same time. [Popsci, emphasis mine]
Holy. Crap. All three major spillways are open like your sister. And just like with your sister, there’s going to be a lot more Hepatitis going around.
More pictures of amazing DIY levees — all courtesy of Popsci and Scott Olson/Getty Images — are after the cut. I totally want to build one of these levees around my house. Not because I live in a flood-prone area, but so I can fill it up with ball pit balls.
The best laid schemes o’ mice an’ men gang aft a-gley.