10 Failed Levees In Midwest Flood Zone Were Not Inspected By Federal Government

[Sherman A1]

The 11 levees that failed last week during catastrophic flooding along the Missouri River were maintained by local associations or private owners, with just one inspected by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers this year, KCUR and APM Reports has found.

As losses mount in Nebraska, Kansas, Iowa and Missouri, the flooding has refocused criticism on the Corps’ long-term management of the river. The Corps provides oversight for smaller levees, called "non-federal," run mostly by agricultural and other landowner groups.

Seven of the 11 levees were found to be “minimally acceptable” in the early 2010s and there are no records showing inspections for three others, according to an analysis of information from the National Levee Database, which is operated by the Corps and the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

The first levee breaches, which flooded the corner where Missouri, Iowa, Nebraska and Kansas meet, were on March 15. The muddy Missouri River now covers the entire area, forcing towns to evacuate, closing Interstate 29 from Nebraska nearly to St. Joseph, Missouri, and shutting down spring planting for the area's farmers.

https://news.stlpublicradio.org/post/10-failed-levees-midwest-flood-zone-were-not-inspected-federal-government

[underthematrix]

1. take a look at federal funding for that period.

[Moostache]

2. Climate Change being all fake Newsy again? Clutch the pearls...

I do declare I may need to rest, I feel faint!


Everyone may as well get used to this kind of "let's not address the REAL issue, instead find someone to blame" rhetoric....its about all we have left in our world of rampant fraud and denial ascendency.

[SWBTATTReg]

3. And why didn't the associations and/or private individuals inspect the levees themselves...

if the feds couldn't or didn't get to (in order to inspect)? I am curious if they are saying that these levees weren't inspected by the feds, therefore it's the fed's fault? I would think that if these levees were constructed by levee associations and/or private individuals, that with all of the money spent in building these structures, that some sort of inspection would have been done, to ensure that the structures were in fact, capable of doing their job to begin with.

Some levees were inspected by the Corp, I'm curious as to what the evaluations then would have said about the evaluated levees, e.g., build them higher, they are okay as is, etc.?

Of course we all know that some of the causes of this flooding is the narrowing of the actual river channels that would have, in the past, allowed the flood waters to be more effectively handled. This narrowing of the river channel to supposedly control the river(s) more to allow shipping and/or open up more farm land instead allowed more dangerous flooding to occur, so in a way, these farmers are part of the problem too (as well as society demands too, such as safeguarding our roadways, homes, cities, etc., the whole thing).

I know in years previous, they have opened up additional channels for floodwaters to flow too, when the waters are too much for existing channels (in the southern states), this helps the floodwaters currently in the river system(s) to flow faster towards the ocean, thus helping the entire system in handling the flood waters.

I am curious if they have such an agreement too with farmers/ranchers, to open up a series of levels to allow flood waters in to relieve pressure off of river structures (of course the Corps would compensate the farmers/ranchers for losses)?

[Wellstone ruled]

4. Look no further than the Local Politics

in the Flood areas. Gave up years ago after all the Bitching about the Corps spending all that money on Inspections of levees. Had a Business Contact who's Spouse was the head of the Missouri Basin Watershed District. Her Hubby was being pressured daily by Republican Members of Congress to cut his Inspection and Maintenance Budget because of sensitivity to concerns of Big AG interests in the Basin.


So when the Fargo Flood Out hit,the Corps brought him in the Clean up years of neglect and poorly built levees in a effort to regain the good graces of the local Political Establishment. Shortly after,he just had had enough and Retired out early. And as far as anything along the lines of Maintenance or corrective measures,appears nothing has been done.