Missouri: Flooding Farmland to Save a Town

The Takeaway

The Army Corps of Engineers blew up a section of a Mississippi River levee to try to protect an Illinois town from rising flood waters. As a result, nearly 130-thousand acres of Missouri farmland were flooded. Amanda Jones lives in Dexter, MO. She says that her main concern is the explosives that are being used in order to wipe out the levee. Jim Pogue, spokesman for the Army Corps of Engineers is at the site of the Birds Point levee says that the explosives don’t pose a danger. He details the plans for the flood fight. He says it was a “heart-wrenching decision” to blow the levee.

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