Few Missouri River Levees Intact After Midwest Flooding (1)

Very few levees remain fully intact across a large stretch of the Missouri River after this spring’s devastating flooding, according to the head of the Army Corps of Engineers.

R.D. James, the top civilian official in charge of the Corps, told a Senate committee that nearly all of the river’s levees between Omaha, Neb., and Kansas City, Mo., were overtopped this spring and are “no longer acceptable as levees.”

“This year’s flood season has challenged many state and federal agencies,” James told a May 8 hearing of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee. “The extent of the damage ...