WATCH: U.S.S. Kidd moving downstream for much-needed repairs
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BATON ROUGE - As of Thursday afternoon, the U.S.S. Kidd has left its place near the levee in downtown Baton Rouge and has been docked downstream for final inspections and likely won't move for a couple of weeks before going to Houma for some major and much-needed repairs.
Watch the livestream from WBRZ's TowerCam here.
The decision to move the Kidd came last year, when drought lowered the water level in the Mississippi River for weeks at a time, exposing the Kidd's hull and leaving it open to damage.
"The river's been down lower than it has been historically," said director of the U.S.S. Kidd Museum Parks Stephenson in 2023. "So, she's spending more and more time out of the water. We're experiencing breaches in the hull, which are flooding."
Along with routine patches, the museum also hopes to give the Kidd a "new look," but did not specify what that would entail.
Thursday, the Kidd began its journey down the Mississippi to be ultimately docked in a Houma shipyard.