The New Yorker has just made this article free to read -- it is from 1987 -- but is right back in time for this Mississippi flood -- it was written by Princeton author John McPhee who you might remember from his great book "The Pine Barrens"

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Timely and Enlightening: John McPhee on Cajun Country Floods

The New Yorker has brought out from its paywall archives John McPhee's wonderful 1987 piece "Atchafalaya." This is about the very stretch of the lower Mississippi River in the news today because of the pending decision to open the Morganza Spillway and flood parts of Cajun Country, so as to spare Baton Rouge and New Orleans from being flooded instead. (Click link below)

http://www.newyorker.com/archive/1987 ... 3_039_TNY_CARDS_000347146