According to this source, the Mississippi/Ohio flood of 1937 was estimated at 157 trillion TONS of water.
library.thinkquest.org
According to this source, the Mississippi flood of 1927 was half as bad.
studentweb.tulane.edu
If so, 20 trillion gallons would not be quite as bad, although coming all at once would be really bad. But that much water would jump the banks and go everywhere, it can't stay channelled, so it wouldn't be that much by the time it got south.
I don't know how bad it would be north of Louisiana, but I don't think it would take out the two bridges (at least the new bridge) in Baton Rouge, the new bridge in Luling and all the bridges in New Orleans (can't remember how many - four?). Those bridges are very wide and very tall. One thing they'd do is open the locks at Old River, and let the water go into the Atchafalaya, probably.
Of course, even if they did not open the locks at Old River, this would probably be the final blow to the locks, anyway, as that much water would take them out and then the Mississippi would go where it wants to go, through the Atchafalaya basin. I don't believe anyone really knows whether enough water would stay in the present channel for navigation and cooling the chemical plants and oil refineries south of Baton Rouge.
studentweb.tulane.edu
IOW, not good, but I don't think it would happen like the scenario has it. BWDIK?
Here is a photo of the Luling Bridge under construction. That's a big sucker.
greenvillebridge.com
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Now here is one I was thinking about last night. Taxicabs. They're everywhere. We never notice them. And most of the people driving them in the DC metro area are Muslims. |
