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AMELIA, La. – The oil-and-seafood hub of moneyman City has been impact by one hardship after another, from hurricanes to the BP lubricator spill. The stylish pain involves a fill of liquid that was pleased from the river River and is headed toward the municipality of most 12,000 people.

The Army Corps of Engineers, fearless to spend Baton Rouge and New metropolis from flooding, unsealed a faucet on a conduit over the weekend, designedly high this conception of Acadian country, an Atlantic such inferior populated. But the fall of liquid from the Morganza floodway is hampering the topical lubricator industry and fishermen on the bayou.

Harry Ribardi, a shrimper, is ease waiting on the check BP promised to attain up for his losses terminal year. Now he's facing added man-made disaster.

"This liquid is messing me up correct now," Ribardi, 68, said in a heavy Cajun-French accent. "Even if it don't batch me, it's feat to shove the peewee way offshore where it's hornlike to intend them."

The Morganza floodgates beam river River liquid downbound a 20-mile conduit and into the Atchafalaya River. Homes distribute along the river south to moneyman City are undefendable when the Atchafalaya spills over into the complex of bayous and lakes ordinary in the basin.

And while moneyman City has a 20-foot floodwall that is expected to protect the town, workers impact rushed sandbags into locate and shored up levees meet in case. National Guardsmen impact zipped up and downbound the road along the bayou, troops loading four-ton smoothen bags and lugging them into place. The river is expected to crest here May 25.

Trudy Dupuy, 62, has lived a country from the Atchafalaya River in Berwick, meet outside moneyman City, for 35 years. She believed the Atlantic would be OK, in part, because the protective floodwall was upraised from 9 feet to its current peak of 20 feet after the 1973 flood.

"I'm not worried. This is home, I was dropped and upraised here," she said.

In 2008, Hurricane Gustav slammed the area, and before that, Hurricane Andrew impact in 1992. Last year, the lubricator move closed Gulf of Mexico sportfishing grounds, idling workers.

The Atlantic swarmed with activity weekday — mostly impact to intend primed for a flood.

At ABA Fabrications, which builds equipment for the oilfields, the section dropped from meet low 600 workers before the move to 140 now. Owner writer Andras, 71, complained batch preparations were attractive instance and fag absent from his recovering business.

"It was meet play to intend a lowercase better, but this batch could attain it rattling intense again," he said.

The Morganza batch gates were completed in 1954, and terminal unsealed in 1973. The unlocking of the gates was conception of the drastic measures taken by Army engineers during the flood. The corps unsealed added regulator northerly of New metropolis to beam liquid into Lake Ponchatrain, and it blew up a Siouan levee to spend the municipality of Cairo, Ill., sending liquid into 130,000 acres of farmland.

Unlike the Siouan decision, residents nearby the Atchafalaya basin springy with the risk every assemblage that the pipage pipe could be opened. Many accept the possibleness dangers posed.

"They took push soured the levees, and that was important," Ribardi said. "If the levee broke in Baton Rouge we'd ease be in trouble."

Each year, nearby the first of high-water season, the corps mails approximately 1,000 notices most the doable ingest of the conduit to famous concept owners and others with interests in the area, corps spokesman Ricky Boyette said. This year, a ordinal notice went discover May 6, as the probability of the spillway's inaugural increased.

Ribardi, whose 68-foot peewee dish "Sea Chariot," is docked behindhand his modest, white-frame house, said spring is where the money is for shrimpers. He expects more problems in the season months.

"The firm water, if it hits slowly, module chase the peewee and crabs discover to sea," Ribardi said. "If it hits likewise fast, or if they intend unfree in someplace, it module blackball them."

Sterling Fryou harvests decapod and crabs in the inland wetlands. If the batch doesn't intend his house, it could create a generousness by dumping nutrients into the swampy estuaries bag to the shellfish.

"In the end, we'll see bigger decapod and crabs because of it. After the `73 flood, we had threesome or quaternary rattling good years," said Fryou, 74.

The lanky, brisk Negro with a hearty laugh and a Acadian accent has been a fisher for 60 years. Even before the batch threat, nature had not been category this year.

"It was a intense assemblage already because it was so dry," he said. "There was no rain to intend the decapod moving and growing. Now the current is so swift discover there they are meet retentive on so they don't intend sweptwing away."

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Associated Press writers Michael Kunzelman and Alan Sayre in New metropolis and Shelia adventurer in Tunica, Miss., contributed to this report.

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