Missouri Farmers Sue Over Blown Levee

KMBC.Com Kansas ABC News Story ^ | 05/03/2011 | AP

[hope_dies_last]

CAPE GIRARDEAU, Mo. -- A group of 25 southeast Missouri farmers is suing the federal government over its decision to blow a hole in a levee, causing their farmland and houses to flood.

Cape Girardeau attorney J. Michael Ponder filed the lawsuit Tuesday, less than 24 hours after the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers detonated explosives on the Birds Point levee to ease pressure from the swelling Mississippi River.

The Southeast Missourian reports that the lawsuit claims that the government violated the farmers' rights by taking their land without adequate compensation. The lawsuit seeks class-action status.

Ponder, who is from Charleston, says he has had cousins who were wiped out by the levee breach.

The corps has said that flowage easements attached to the farmers' property deeds allowed them to breach the levee.

Read more: http://www.kmbc.com/news/27761667/detail.html#ixzz1LQCx5dBC

[hope_dies_last]

Key point to consider is that this will have ripple effects on food prices...

For a more complete story, read more at:

http://www.topsecretwriters.com/2011/05/missouri-farmers-sue-army-for-destroying-farmland/

[Blueflag]

Personally I hope they win.

also, this was done without a proper environmental impact study.

surely the nesting ground of some rare 3” lizard is now flooded.

[RummyChick]

I dont think crop insurance will cover this. They haven’t been able to plant.

And what about the homes there were destroyed?

[bert]

The short term loss will be more than offset by the longterm gain resulting from added fertility to their soil resulting from the silt deposited by the flood

[greatplains]

Oh, never mind all that. It was done for the greater good, dontcha know. Besides, it was just a few homes. And it may have saved a bunch of derelict s#!+ in Cairo.

[hope_dies_last]

The “Nile effect” is a good point, however also in the short-term will mean higher food prices, in an already hurting populous... self included.

[bert]

You also fail to consider those down stream. By absorbing the water in Missouri, the flow rate is dramatically slowed. The volume of water arriving in Memphis and New Orleans will be the same. The rate at which it arrives and the flood levels will both be diminished.

The decision is much broader than some farms in Missouri or a ghost town in Illinois.

The farmers bought land in the flood plain and should expect floods. The levees do not eliminate the risk.

[RummyChick]

I watched a video of Cairo. THose buildings are uninhabitable.

There are a few mansion type homes but they appear to be owned by the entities like historical preservation ,etc.

Durbin and Obama went there before he was elected. Maybe even to Senator.

They should make him and his family live in Cairo.

[RummyChick]

The blasts did nothing to ease risks downstream, where the Army Corps of Engineers warns that the Mississippi River could rise to its highest levels since the 1920s.

http://www.usatoday.com/weather/floods/2011-05-03-mississippi-river-cairo-illinois-levee-floods_n.htm

[RummyChick]

I am flipping through this guy’s pictures. He has some of the flooding in Cairo at the end.

http://www.pbase.com/georgecumbee/image/134428075

[muawiyah]

The whole area is FANCY BEAN COUNTRY. The loss of some of this years bean crop will seriously impact Mexico which ordinarily imports 90% of the US fancy bean crop each year.

Somebody didn't clear this with Calderon Fur Shur.

[Rebelbase]

Aerial view of flooding:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gOQR0OhXkDI

[greatplains]

Ha! Or the judges that made this dumb decision. That’s one of the best ideas I’ve heard all day.

[Rebelbase]

More Aerial views:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2UjhxkeONBc&feature=related

The Obama Administration gave this considerable thought before deciding to flood out all the wealth producing republicans.

[EQAndyBuzz]

“The short term loss will be more than offset by the longterm gain resulting from added fertility to their soil resulting from the silt deposited by the flood.”

And in the meantime?

[tiki]

Have you ever had a farm that flooded? It isn’t that simple.

[GOYAKLA]

Does this mean they will or won’t get their subsidies?

[Da Bilge Troll]

added fertility to their soil

Your forgetting about contamination from the river water. I'd bet they will not be allowed to sell anything they grow for the forseeable future.

It's OK though because Missouri is a "red state". We gotta punish our enemies, right?

[LSAggie]

Well, it isn’t that simple. A flood of this magnitude doesn’t deposit an inch or two of silt on the farmland, it can leave behind feet of sand.

The 1993 Flood on the Missouri, flooded many acres of farmland, depositing up to 8 feet of sand in many locations. One in particular, Overton Bottoms, viewable from I-70, was flooded. When the flood waters receded there was 8 feet of sand left behind.

With no feasible way of removing that volume of sand, the owner took a buy out offer and the area is now a wildlife refuge. The entire bottoms is now out of the food production chain.

How many wildlife refuges do we need? How many acres of farmland are we willing to take out of production?

osagebowman posting on wife’s account.

[Sea Parrot]

This was not normal natural flooding of the land, the breaching released a 10-15 foot wall of water, creating a mini tsunami which swept away precious topsoil.

I would also sue the COE for their channelization of the Mississippi River, which resulted in the soil subsidence (compaction due to lack of otherwise natural moisture) of the farmers lands.

The blast at the Birds Point levee brought a wall of water up to 15 feet high that swiftly filled corn, soybean and wheat fields in southeast Missouri.

Link here

There was another levee section breach scheduled for today, but typical for government dirty work, delayed until tonight. Upsets the womenfolk, scares the horses and frightens the children to see such in broad daylight.