'Like a Monster Coming down the River' The Gulf Coast region,
still reeling from the oil-laden assault on its ecosystem and
livelihoods, is now bracing for what’s being called one of the
worst cases of flooding since the 1920s and “the nation’s
slowest moving natural disaster.” Economists are projecting
billions of dollars in damages just as local Gulf-dependent
industries such as fisheries, aquaculture, and tourism are
struggling back to profitability after the devastating blows
from Hurricanes Katrina and Rita and the BP oil spill. Last
week, residents braced for the worst-case scenario: levee breaks
that could potentially exceed the damage wrought by Hurricane
Katrina. To ease the threat of flooding in New Orleans and Baton
Rouge, on Saturday the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers opened the
Morganza Spillway for the first time in nearly four
decades—sending a torrent of water toward thousands of homes in
the French-speaking Louisiana countryside, “threatening to
slowly submerge the land under water up to 25 fee