A barge was placed there this spring to hold back high Atchafalaya River waters. The structure is credited with preventing flooding in parts of Terrebonne, Lafourche, Assumption and St. Mary parishes.
The Army Corps of Engineers says 16 of 125 bays are now open on the Morganza spillway upriver from Baton Rouge, sending water from the Mississippi River into the Atchafalaya River at a rate of 108,000 cubic feet per second.