My guess is the the Corps of Engineers maintains the levees on navigable waters, the the one causing all the trouble is not on the river.
At any rate, it is scores of local governments over many decades that have made really bad decisions about the the Mississippi. they have built a house of cards.
the number of dead from the storm will be somewhere between 200 to 500.
these horrific "i heard it from a friend who works with a firefighters brother thousands of dead bodies" stories always happen with hurricanes and never come to pass (since 1900 anyway)....in then turns into a conspiracy.
a couple hundred people in miss will have died because they didnt evacuate from the coast, although this number will stay in the hundreds because the vast majority of people right at the coast did evacuate.
the new orleans total will be in the hundred range because the flood there was a slow-rise event giving people time to move up floors and finally to the roof..of course some got trapped but majority have been rescued.
i may be wrong, i hope not.