VIDALIA — The opening of one spillway and the possible opening of a second south of the Miss-Lou will provide little relief for area residents battling the Mississippi River, levee board officials say.

Fifth District Levee Board President Reynold Minsky said Gov. Bobby Jindal’s decision to open the Bonnet Carre Spillway near New Orleans was meant to help slow down the flow of the water and help facilitate the possible addition of more water from the Ohio Valley.

But the Bonnet Carre opening, scheduled for 8 a.m. Monday, will have no effect on water passing the Miss-Lou.

While nothing is certain yet, Minsky said he does expect Jindal to request that the Morganza Spillway near Baton Rouge be opened to provide additional help with the flow of water.

“If they do open it, it will be toward the end of next week,” he said.

The opening of the Morganza Spillway could have some effect at Natchez and Vidalia — dropping the river level up to a foot, maybe — but Minsky said he wasn’t confident it would drop at all. The effect, if any, would be miniscule, he said.

Louisiana Sheriff’s Association Executive Director Michael Ranatza said if the spillway is open, residents in the area around the Morganza Spillway will have to be evacuated.

“There are 6,000 structures and around 10,000 people that live in that area,” he said.

Minsky said whether Morganza is open or not, he believes the main line levees are strong enough to hold the water.

“We know they are strong and can handle the water,” he said. “I don’t see any reason to worry.”

Minsky gave this and other new information to a crowd gathered at the Concordia Parish Police Jury Friday morning.

Members of the Louisiana Sheriffs’ Association, the Department of Homeland Security, the Louisiana State Police, the National Guard and the Fifth District Levee Board were all present to give their reports and listen in on the new information.

Ranatza said the groups met to better facilitate preparation efforts among officials in affected areas in the state.

“We have all been inundated with numbers of calls pertaining to specific details about the possible flooding,” he said. “We are here to help get out some more information and to better inform the leaders.”

Minsky first began by speaking to the crowd about the current state of the levees.

“We are still projected at having three feet of open space at the top of the lower lying levees in the district,” he said. “In some of the higher areas of the levee, there are going to be eight to 10 feet of open space.”

Minsky said it still appears that the levees will hold, but the board’s focus is on sand boils.

“The only problem with the levees I feel we have are with the sand boils that are occurring that we cannot see,” he said.

A sand boil occurs when water forces its way under the levee and displaces the soil. When a sand boil comes to the surface and is identified, a pressure well of sandbags is built around the boil until the water pressure is equalized and stops displacing soil from under the levee.

Minsky said locating these boils is a tricky task, but once they are found, they are an easy problem to fix.

“They are unknown and unseen,” he said. “All we have to do is find them.”

Minsky said members from the National Guard, the Department of Wildlife and Fisheries and the Department of Transportation and Development all began training Friday to find sand boils.

“They are going to be trained and then sent out to sand boil hot spots and potential hot spots to help find them,” he said.

Other than the boils, Minsky said the only other problem he foresees is the length of the river crest.

Minsky said the river is projected to be at 50 feet on June 22, and the water could still be above flood stage into July if any more water gets into the Ohio Valley.

“There are many lakes in and above they Ohio Valley that have full reservoirs,” he said. “The reason for the lengthy duration of the crest is due to the fact that those reservoirs are full.”

Officials in the Ohio Valley are going to wait until the water begins to decline in the Fifth Levee District before they begin to release more water from the full reservoirs, Minsky said.

“That is the reason the crest duration is going to be so long,” he said.

“We just hope that we don’t get any more water in the Ohio Valley. If we do, we will have a higher river and a good extension in the duration,” he said.

Officials from the Department of Corrections also gathered to speak on possible evacuations of prisoners in case of an emergency.

LDOC Secretary James M. LeBlanc said the state is going to focus on evacuations at Angola first.

“It will only be a partial evacuation,” he said.

LeBlanc said the LDOC’s assets for prisoner transport will be in use at Angola before they can be used by other sheriff’s agencies, but that should not be a problem.

“We are experts at transporting prisoners across the state,” he said. “We are ready to go at a moment’s notice. We move quickly, and once we are done the tools will go to whoever needs them next.”

LeBlanc said the only thing sheriffs can do to prepare for a possible evacuation is to have a plan in place.

“Whether you have plans or not, call us,” he said. “We want to work with you to find out what resources you have and what you need so we can help. If we work together, we will be OK.”

Louisiana State Police Superintendent Col. Michael Edmonson said air assets for possible air evacuations of civilians and animals will be available.

“Any parish that needs this assistance will have the availability to use them,” he said.

Fred Gwin with the Louisiana Secretary of State’s office came and spoke with the crowd about the importance of managing important records.

“Valuable or historical records and documents are very important to save during times like these,” he said. “You need to make every effort to get them to higher ground.”

Gwin said there is a large records office in Baton Rouge that has space available for storing important records that will be available if the parish needs it.

“They will be stored on a temporary basis,” he said. “We all have to deal with public safety first, but once that is dealt with these should be our primary concern. They are critical to helping cities operate after these major events.”

Concordia Parish Sheriff Randy Maxwell said the meeting was a great reminder of what is important in these trying times.

“Our job is public safety. That is our first concern and our No. 1 goal,” he said. “I am glad we got to come here and address some of our needs.”

The river was at 53.97 feet as of Friday afternoon. Flood stage is 48 feet.

The record flood stage for the Miss-Lou is 58.04 feet in 1937.