Fighting back the rising Mississippi River during last spring’s historic flood is the topic of this year’s keynote speech Wednesday at a lunch-

eon for National Engineers Week.

Thomas L. Minyard, chief of engineering and construction for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Memphis District, will address the subject before members and guests of the Society of American Military Engineers at the BB Club, 721 Clay St. The speech is titled “The White Knuckle Floodway Operation of 2011.”

Doors open at 11 a.m. The ticket-only event sold out Friday, and organizers expect about 125 to attend, said Joe Savage of the Engineers Week Planning Committee.

Additional activities this week are planned by local branches of the Society of Women Engineers, American Society of Civil Engineers and Mississippi Engineering Society, as well as statewide sections of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers and the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers.

Minyard, a Mississippi native, holds bachelors and masters degrees in civil engineering from Mississippi State University and began his Corps career with the Vicksburg District in 1983.