The Levee Will Be Breached

From CNN, Army Corps opts to blow up levee, flood 130,000 acres in Missouri

(CNN) — Starting Monday night, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers will blow up a levee at the confluence of the Mississippi and Ohio rivers due to record-high water levels in both rivers, said Maj. Gen. Michael Walsh.
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“(The system) continues to be under enormous and unprecedented pressure,” said Walsh, the president of the Mississippi River Commission. “Because of that … I’ve ordered the district commander to operate the project.”

The first phase of the explosive operation at the Birds Point-New Madrid levee should occur between 9 p.m. and midnight Monday. Walsh said that historic and still rising flood waters made it imperative to begin the operation as soon as possible. The multistage process is expected to continue through Tuesday.

Missouri Attorney General Chris Koster’s office tried to block the move, challenging the Corps’ authority to breach the levee. But the U.S. Supreme Court, in a ruling from Justice Samuel Alito, denied Missouri’s bid.

The rivers at Cairo, Illinois are already more than 20 feet above flood level and climbing with more rain expected. The levee system is going to fail somewhere, the Corps of Engineers is hoping to minimize damage by picking the spot and reducing the water level.

I’m a bit mystified that the Missouri officials don’t seem to understand that the reason that the farmland that will be flooded is fertile because it was a flood plain before the levee was built, and the top soil is river silt.

As a bit of background on the situation you should read the short Wikipedia version of the Great Mississippi Flood of 1927. A lot of good information in there about the major political changes that occurred because of this event, beyond the passage of the Flood Control Act of 1928 that allows the Corps to breach the levees.

The musical versions are When the Levee Breaks based on an old Blues song, and Louisiana 1927.