I took this photo from the eastern levee of the southside of the Bonnet Carre' Spillway locks. The Mississippi River is rising rapidly and the ships are riding high.
When I was growing up my mother(who can be seen at http://www.pbase.com/septembermorn/image/37227063) was a keeper of a kerosene powered lighthouse for the United States Lighthouse Service somewhere near the point of land that juts into the River. During high water such as this she slept with one eye open at night and any time a ship would sound its horn she just knew it had gone aground because the light had gone out. If a ship sounded its horn more than three times the entire house knew of it. In all the years that she tended the light I do not believe it ever went out.