levees News

Viewpoint: Nature-Based Flood Mitigation Can Help Mississippi River Farmers

The 2019 flooding of the Mississippi, Missouri and Arkansas Rivers in the United States impacted 19 states and caused $20 billion in losses. Waters in Baton Rouge, Louisiana stayed above flood levels for 211 days, longer than any flood in …

Western Iowa Community Finds Flood Recovery a Long Process

HORNICK, Iowa — For a year now, every time Bob Nelson hears a flood watch has been issued, he’s up and out the door, no matter the time of day, checking on creeks and the West Fork of the Little …

Tropical Storm Barry Set to Dump Two Feet of Rain on Louisiana

The leading edge of Tropical Storm Barry’s wind and rain is reaching Louisiana, where communities including New Orleans are bracing for a downpour that threatens to inundate already-high waterways. As much as 25 inches (64 centimeters) of rain could fall …

Mississippi River Barge Shipping Resumes After Floods, but Rains to Return

The upper Mississippi River fully reopened to boat and barge traffic this week for the first time since November as shippers scrambled to move a backlog of overdue fertilizer barges to farmers racing to sow corn before the end of …

Crews Assess Environmental Threats Flooding Leaves Behind

HAMBURG, Iowa — Driving along a deeply rutted levee, Heath Smith points to a basketball, picnic basket and pink Big Wheel. He drives past a massive porch. A boat and a semi’s missing trailer sit up ahead. He’s found a …

The Missouri River Is Just Going to Keep On Flooding: Viewpoint

The Missouri River used to be out of control. “It cuts corners, runs around at nights, fills itself with snags and traveling sandbars, lunches on levees, and swallows islands and small villages for dessert,” is how the humorist George Fitch …

3 Midwest States Demand More Power over River after Floods

COUNCIL BLUFFS, Iowa — Three Midwestern Republican governors of states ravaged by recent flooding on Wednesday demanded more authority over management of the Missouri River system. Following a meeting with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds, …

Museum Recreates Katrina’s Muck in New Orleans

About the photo: Artist Aaron Angelo takes a sledgehammer to the leg of a baby grand piano in a house where two rooms are being transformed to look as they might have looked once floodwaters receded following Hurricane Katrina in …

California Flood Protection Means More Room for Rivers

After more than a century of building levees higher to hold back its rivers, California took another step Friday toward a flood-control policy that aims to give raging rivers more room to spread out instead. The plan, adopted by the …

Louisiana Parishes Want to Be Part of Levee Plan

Louisiana residents and parish officials are lobbying the Army Corps of Engineers to include Ascension and St. James parishes in a massive hurricane protection project. The Advocate reports the Army Corps met this past week with local interests as part …