ABC26 News

The New Orleans Archdiocese released its plan to close and merge 27 parishes.

View Larger Map

The red markers (click on markers for more info) are parishes that will merge with another parish and change their places of worship to the new parish.

The blue markers are parishes that will close and combine, forming a new parish. The parishioners will name the new parish.

The green markers are parishes that will become a mission of a neighboring parish. The parish’s church will remain open as a place of worship as part of the existing parish.

The purple markers are parishes that will share a pastor with another parish. The parishes will continue to operate independently with independent lay leadership and maintain all parish activities, but will share a pastor.

The yellow markers are parishes that currently operate on the campuses of local universities. They will no longer be considered parishes, but Campus Ministry Centers. Pastoral services and masses will go on as already scheduled.

For a list of all the parish changes click here.

For the first time in 11 years, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers will open the Bonnet Carre Spillway today. Heavy rains in the Mississippi River Valley have raised the water level in the river high enough to prompt the Corps to open the spillway.

Opening the spillway, located almost 33 miles upriver from New Orleans, will divert river water to Lake Pontchartrain, taking stress off of levees down river. The Corps expects the spillway to remain open for 2-4 weeks.

Here's a map of the Bonnet Carre Spillway, pointing out the location of the flood control structure and the floodway:

View Larger Map

Some facts about the control structure from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers:

• The spillway control structure is 32.8 miles upriver from New Orleans.


• It is 7,000 feet long.


• There are 350 bays, each 20 feet long.


• There are 20 timbers per bay – 7,000 in all.


• The spillway has been opened eight times before today: 1937, 1945, 1950, 1973, 1975, 1979, 1983, and 1997.


• 250,000 cubic feet of water can flow through the spillway per second.

• The floodway covers 7,623 acres.


• It is 5.7 miles long from the Mississippi River to Lake Pontchartrain.


• The spillway width at the river is 7,700 feet.


• At Lake Pontchartrain, the spillway is 12,400 feet wide.

An NOPD officer responding to a burglar alarm at a house in Lakeview shot and killed the homeowner’s Doberman on the back porch of the house Monday.

Patrick Coleman, the owner of the dog, is distraught. He says he is considering suing the NOPD. And the Humane Society and LASPCA are looking into the incident.

Police say the dog, along with another Doberman, came running out of a doggie door and the officer was fearful for his life. That’s why he shot at the dogs.

Coleman, though, questions why the officer had to shoot. He says the 4-year-old Doberman, Jax, was partially crippled after a recent back surgery. And Coleman says police told him that his other dog, Scarlet, was the attacker. Scarlet was not hurt.

The LASPCA investigated at the home after the shooting and said it seemed justified. They released this as part of a statement:

The LA/SPCA recognizes that misconceptions about large breed dogs such as Dobermans, Rottweilers, German Shepherds, for example, being aggressive may have played a role in the tragic chain of events. Most dogs will bark at someone entering their yard unable to differentiate between an intruder and a police officer. Sadly, when the officer was approached by the dog, the officer felt that he needed to protect himself from a potential attack.