The Army Corps of Engineers says the Mississippi River should double its flow near New Orleans in about two weeks, as rain from heavy storms arrives.

Corps spokesman Bob Anderson said Monday that the river’s flow at New Orleans is expected to increase from about 500,000 cubic feet per second to about 1 million cubic feet per second.

Anderson says all that extra water could help push any oil-tainted water from an offshore rig spill away from the Mississippi’s mouth. He also says winds could counteract that flow.

The water surge follows weekend storms that killed more than two dozen people in Tennessee, Kentucky and Mississippi.