Workers help build a temporary levee in Krotz Springs, La., Friday, May 13, 2011, in advance of possible flooding if the Morganza Spillway north of Baton Rouge is opened. Workers were rushing to build the temporary levee to protect properties that have been built outside of the town’s permanent ring levee over the last few decades. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)

Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal said the Army Corps of Engineers have authorized the opening of the Morganza Spillway.

The spillway will be opened as early as Saturday or Sunday, according to The Associated Press. This will be the first time in 38 years that the spillway will have to be unlocked.

Residents in the nearby Cajun Country are packing up their belongings and moving to higher ground. Sheriffs and National Guardsmen are moving from house to house in the neighbor hoods and advising residents to leave the area.

The opening of the spillway is necessary to relieve pressure on levees downstream. Engineers have advised that weeks of pressure on the levees could result in their failures. If this happens, New Orleans, Baton Rouge, oil refineries and chemical plants along the lower Mississippi River could flood with as much as 20 feet of water.

Once the Morganza Spillway is opened, the resulting flood will affect about 25,000 people and 11,000 structures. Jindal has said that shelters are set up to accept up to 4,800 people.

The flood waters have the potential to leave approximately 3,000 square miles under as much as 25 feet of water in some areas of Louisiana’s Cajun Country.

U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Maj. Gen. Michael J. Walsh and the corps will hold two press conferences, one at 1 p.m. and one at 2:30 p.m. Saturday, at the spillway.