Mississippi River at Flood Stage

CNN reports:

With the overflowing Mississippi River bearing down on New Orleans, where the water level was already at flood stage, the Army Corps of Engineers said Thursday it is opening more bays along a major spillway.

By the end of the day, the Corps will open 113 more bays -- bringing the total to 223 open bays at the Bonnet Carre Spillway, authorities said. The spillway, just north of New Orleans, diverts water into Lake Pontchartrain. It has 350 bays.

The National Weather Service said that as of Thursday morning, the river was at 17 feet in New Orleans, right at flood stage. It is expected to crest on May 23 at more than 19 feet.

"Nobody can wrap their heads around what's going to happen," said Caroline George of Baton Rouge. In a CNN iReport from her hometown, where the 19-year-old is on summer break from college, she said, "I've never seen the river anywhere near where it is now."

The floodwaters that have already inundated tens of thousands of acres of Missouri farmland and lapped at downtown Memphis, Tennessee, are on a steady, soggy march through Arkansas, Mississippi and Louisiana, bringing damage and devastation to some areas.

Flooding also continues to be a problem in southeastern Missouri and southern Illinois, though the Mississippi and Ohio rivers have already crested in those states.

"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.