iphone. its overflow from the mississippi risk for in the spillway in norco, two miles from the levee there. the u.s. arm corpse of engineers plans to protect that from the floodwaters about you some may not be a big fun of the plan because engineers could open the spillway and diverted water is expected to take pressure off live van dara. reporter: gerald will fight off the rising water with louisiana bayou eng knewty, home made levee wall. you think it s going to be enough? i m hoping so. if it gets any higher, there aren t going to be much of the neighborhood for sure. reporter: disaster flowing downstream and residents in towns like stevenville, morgan city at the end of the line. getting the closer it gets, i m starting to get
worried about it. reporter: the spillway will be opened in the coming day, redirecting mississippi water way from baton rouge and new orleans, west into the river basin. the arm corps of engineers ed phlegm willing decide when to open floodgated. what the structures are designed for to take excess water beyond the designed capacity for the levee system off the top of the river. one of the floodgates. on the other side the pressure from the floodwaters starting to rise. this structure s almost 5,000 feet long and it has 125 gates. in the coming days, some of those gates will be opened up and when that does a massive wall of water will continue to flow out this way, drowning out the area, and flowing toward the gulf of mexico. these floodgates have only been opened once back in 1973, bringing the kind of images people around here have never forgotten, like morgan city mayor tim mett.