McPhee spent months trying to understand the centuries of engineering prowess that have gone into trying to control the Mississippi, especially the creationof structures much in the news today, like Old River Control and the Morganza Floodway, which was opened over the weekend to allow floodwaters to course down through the Atchafalaya basin.
It attracts an eclectic mix of Hindu holy men, Indian movie stars, pilgrims and curious tourists who come to bathe in the Ganges, India's holiest river, where drops of the nectar of immortality are believed to have been spilled from a pitcher by the gods at creation.