Dated Levees Could Place Lives Of Residents Near Mississippi River In Danger

All Headline News ^ | June 20, 2008 | Vittorio Hernandez

[Diana in Wisconsin]

Des Moines, IA (AHN) - The flooding of the Mississippi River has brought out to the open the fact that half of 31 levees between southern Iowa and St. Louis are dated and could no longer withstand the river's rampaging waters.

According to the Army Corps of Engineers the majority of the levees were build three decades ago, while some were as old as 6 decades.

With a National Weather Service forecast of more rains and higher waters on the river, the army engineers fear at least 18 of the levees would give way and this would result to worst flooding beyond what has already caused extensive damage to the area. Under a worst case scenario, some lands could be completely washed off the face of the map.

The dire forecast has led the Lincoln County Sheriff's Department to encourage residents in low lying areas to evacuate their homes for safer grounds.

By Thursday the mighty Mississippi River had made a 150-foot wide hole in one levee and sent gushing water to the city of Winfield in Missouri. Then the hole grew to 550 feet, which created two more holes at a nearby levee. Only an inner levee serves as thin protection between the river and Winfield, although by Thursday evening over 250 houses in the region were already under water.

Water had already gone beyond 20 levees along the Mississippi between Dubuque in Iowa and St. Louis in Missouri, drenching vast acres of agricultural land.

Scientists from the National Climatic Data Center blamed the more frequent and heavy downpours on climate change caused by increased concentration of heat-trapping gases.

Richard Moss, head of the World Wildlife Fund's climate program, warned, quoted by the New York Times, "We need to start making substantial reductions in emissions to minimize how much and how quickly the climate changes, and, just as importantly, we need to begin a serious program of national preparedness to respond to these increasing threats."

[Diana in Wisconsin]

Hmmmm. Think the Government will investigate all of our Elected Officials up and down The Mighty Mississippi and ask them where the money went for repairs? ;)

And how about that Global Warming angle? Levees fail due to Global Warming!

Dorks.

[CindyDawg]

30 years is dated? How often are they supposed to be replaced? Yearly? How about just making a product that will last.

[BossLady]

I guess when they took the Chevy to the levee....the levee was dry? :o

These tards knew it would happen again....there's plenty of info out there on the devastation of the 1993 Mississippi Flood -

http://209.85.141.104/search?q=cache:74qFNaD-EIAJ:www.dartmouth.edu/~fjmagill/levees_espl.pdf+summer+1994+floods+mississippi&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=6&gl=us

http://water.usgs.gov/nwsum/WSP2425/flood.html

http://www.nwrfc.noaa.gov/floods/papers/oh_2/great.htm

http://www.agu.org/sci_soc/walker.html

[Proud_USA_Republican]

Did Bush do this too because he hates black people?

[Diana in Wisconsin]

Well, he must just flat-out hate us ALL because you’ve got every race, creed, color and religion living on the Mississippi River from North to South!

He’s obviously an ‘Equal Opportunity Hater.’ ;)

[VOA]

30 years is dated?

It could be that there are certainly maintainance jobs that haven't
been done. Or upgrades that should have been done given improved
levee methods discovered in the past decades.
Or just things learned about the failures in New Orleans.

As for the "lifetime" of a levee, I don't know what that would be.

IIRC, some of those agricultural levess out in Central California have
been there for a long time, maybe more than 50 years.

[WOBBLY BOB]

Scientists from the National Climatic Data Center blamed the more frequent and heavy downpours on climate change caused by increased concentration of heat-trapping gases.

"500 year flood" BS-couldn't have anything to do with the topography changing in 500 years? Farmers are much more efficient at draining their fields. More of the land is paved, too . Not a lot of 4 lane interstates 500 years ago.

[Freedom4US]

“residents”. Yeah, we just live here. F$@k you AP.

[rightwinggoth]

hard to believe that a government entity that is immune from suit cannot be trusted to do a competent job

[IronJack]

Let me guess: this “problem” could be alleviated with the infusion of a whole bunch of money, right? Did I get it? Huh? Did I?

[Proud_USA_Republican]

Yes, there was white people living in New Orleans too, but remember according to Kayne West, the levees broke because Bush hates black people.

There must be just enough black people living around there for Bush to decide to do this. The white people are just collateral damage in Bush’s war against chocolate cities.

[A Strict Constructionist]

The common thread with all these problems is the Corps of Engineers. Projects in every district to pander for funds and control. They are a incompetent organization that should be disbanded.

[2111USMC]

I suspect you don't live near the Mississippi river.

Having lived most all of my life along the Mississippi, and through extensive travel, my personal opinion is that the Corps of Engineers does a pretty good job.

They are like any other government entity. They don't have totally unlimited funds to work with.

This 2008 flood has been catastrophic to areas along a lot of smaller rivers that don't normally reach these flood levels. However, as a youngster, I can remember the devastation of the ‘65 flood. That one makes this one and ‘93 look like a cake walk. Back then, very few cities along the river even had flood walls.

If you ever have the chance, visit a few of the lock and dam facilities along the Mississippi. The U.S. Corps of Engineers are not “incompetent”. (And no, I do not work for the Corps.)

[Diana in Wisconsin]

"They are a incompetent organization that should be disbanded."

You might want to re-think that. The Corps or Engineers is the SMALLEST budget area for the entire USA Budget. Maybe it should be much bigger and we can cut the FAT at the bottom of the chart? Health & Human Services grows by leaps and bounds each YEAR, as more losers suck up the tax dollars of we that work for a living. Now, THAT, IMHO is something to make a stink about! Nearly SEVEN HUNDRED BILLION DOLLARS a year spent on stupidity like "Midnight Basketball" and FREE health care for non-producers, the indigent, Welfare Mamas and their Fatherless spawn and illegals. Grrrrrr!

I know. I'm really MEAN, LOL!

[B4Ranch]

Do you have any idea what would be needed to update the levees? Perhaps a cement wall down the centers. That would be expensive and slow.

[Diana in Wisconsin]

I set him straight in Post #14. ;)

[A Strict Constructionist]

Try NOLA. I have also lived on the Black Warrior River in Alabama where the COE built a new lock that failed on the first barge. They were also the only opens sewer on the river. When I lived in SC they built a flood control project in an area that no one in living memory could remember flooding, but it got a big ditch. Interesting this district also was home to an important congressman.

Everything involving levees along much of the waterways in the US are controlled by the COE. This includes bridges over them and much more. The reason they have so little funds is that if you spread it around as Congressional favors you can’t do high priority projects.

Talk to some engineers (this if from one that has mucho contracts from them) and you may get a different view, especially when it comes to their handing out government money.

Read, “Rising Tide” by John Barry. It’s about the 1927 flood. One of the main projects that the COE opposed is a spillway above NO that they have already had to use once this year. The COE likes to build levees and dredge. They have been wrong about most projects in this area. One of their worst mistakes and most damaging was MRGO which is not used and funneled water into the city. It’s interesting the the levees at Michoud NASA facility that were under control of private contractors survived while those right next to them under the COE control failed. It’s interesting that the COE has now taken them over. Success has its cost.
The levee boards don’t make a move without the COE approval. Like the yearly inspections that were taken by helicopter so they could get to lunch on time. By the way they are supposed to be on the ground inspections.

I guess we don’t feel the same about the Corps of Engineers.

[A Strict Constructionist]

Actually FEMA is my fist choice for elimination followed by the COE then DHHS would be a good place to really get to work.I say finish with a flourish.

[2111USMC]

It sounds like we have different attitudes about the CoE because we have entirely different geographic experiences. (With the exception of NOLA, I don't believe I've ever been to any of the places you mentioned. So I will take your word on it. My experience with the CoE is based on primarily the Mississippi river from Minnesota down to around St. Louis. We live in the Quad cities.)

As far as NOLA, and please correct me if I'm wrong, I thought I had read that many of the failures there were due to local and state government not acting (spending money that had been given to them) on improvements that the CoE had suggested long ago.

[2111USMC]

I’m not advocating updating the levees. If they hold, they hold. If they don’t, they flood.

Most of the levee failures I’ve seen here in Iowa have been temporary levees thrown up just ahead of the flooding. (Here in the Quad Cities, we’ve built temporary levees and berms out of dirt in sandbags twice already this year. In both floods they have held.)