Even as technology becomes an ever-bigger part of our world, the Mississippi River remains the very lifeblood of the American economy. If the river were to carve a new path to the Gulf of Mexico down the Atchafalaya River during a massive flood, extremely damaging short- and long-term impacts costing hundreds of billions of dollars would result, along with a dangerous threat to global food supplies.
An interruption in U.S. grain exports due to failure of the ORCS, if it occurs during the same year that another major grain-producing nation experiences a serious drought or flood, could cause a frightening global food emergency. The impact might be similar to what was outlined in a "Food System Shock" report issued in 2015 by insurance giant Lloyds of London, with rioting, terrorist attacks, civil war, mass starvation and severe losses to the global economy.
A few years ago, I read a novel (cannot for the life of me remember the name of it) the premise of which was that a large hurricane caused massive flooding that took out the Old River Control Structure, letting the Mississippi divert to the Atchafalaya. In the book (an SHTF novel) cascading related effects crippled the American economy, and society as we know it unraveled.
