The floodgate was opened on Saturday for the first time in nearly four decades, shooting out like a waterfall, spraying 6 feet into the air.
Raging channel
Fish jumped or were hurled through the white froth and what was dry land soon turned into a raging channel.
The water will flow 20 miles south into the Atchafalaya Basin, and from there it will roll on to Morgan City, an oil-and-seafood hub and a community of 12,000.
In the nearby community of Stephensville, rows of sandbags were piled up outside nearly every home.
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