August 14, 2023 — The U.S. state of Mississippi is accepting applications for financial relief from commercial fishermen hurt by the 2019 Mississippi Bonnet Carre Spillway disaster.
The spillway is designed to divert floodwater away from the city of New Orleans and into the Mississippi Sound, but the surge of freshwater spillover into the ocean can shock oysters, crabs, and other aquatic life. When the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers opened the Bonnet Carre Spillway twice in 2019 – the first time it was ever opened twice in one year – it severely damaged area fisheries.