On Monday, The Army Corps of Engineers admitted flood waters currently contained by 27 levees along the Mississippi River could spill over about two dozen levees along the river in Iowa and Missouri "unless people top the levees with enough sandbags," spokesman Ron Fournier said.
Attempts to reach Fournier for a clarification resulted in a call from his office saying the "quotes were accurate," and that Fournier stood behind them.
The Chicago SunTimes did make contact with the spokesman.
There is no way to predict whether these levees will break, Fournier told the Sun Times.
''That's a crystal ball that nobody has,'' he said.
Senator and Chairman of the Senate Agricultural Committee, Tom Harkin (D) confirmed in a press release that in eastern Iowa the flooding has washed out railroad lines, major roadways are closed and Mississippi barge traffic has come to a halt. 38,000 people have been displaced, but that is a shifting, incomplete number.
Harkin: "The situation is overwhelming our local agencies"
Today (Tuesday) Harkin's press office announced a federal disaster declaration of 13 Iowa counties out of 99. This was after the powerful committee chairman sent what amounted to a pleading letter to FEMA on June 13 which read, in part, "Governor Culver has already issued an Emergency Proclamation for nearly all of Iowa's 99 counties, all experiencing significant damage due to the combination of severe rainfall, winds, and flooding. The situation is overwhelming our local agencies."
Now, the Army Corps of Engineers is bracing for more flooding near St. Louis and closed Mississippi River Locks 24 and 25 at Clarksville and Winfield.
In a brilliant public relations spin on their webpage, the Corps says sand is being moved and water is being contained on the east, or protected side of the Chain of Rocks Levee in Illinois. Not to worry though. The corps maintains that "this is not because of flooding."
What?
Corps authorities explain it is a "prudent precaution." After all there are "possibilities of water under seepage along the levee," the corps added. This possibility is buried several levels under the web index page. A fluff piece on lighthouses is featured on page one.
Someone should get a photo of this area and ask the question why, if there is no danger, the corps does not move its heavy equipment north and help move a few of those nearly two million sandbags.
No one seems to have asked the question, so this writer will ask it here. With the epic dimensions of this flood and the scope of the levee and infrastructure failures, how can the Army Corps of Engineers go before the devastated people of central Iowa and those threatened in Missouri and tell them they had better get busy and "top the levees?"
Georgianne Nienaber is a writer, author, and investigative journalist. She lives in the world. Her articles have appeared in The Huffington Post, SCOOP New Zealand, Glide Magazine, Rwanda's New Times, India's TerraGreen, COA News, ZNET, OpEdNews, The Journal of the International Primate Protection League, Friends of the Congo, Africa Front, The United Nations Publication, A Civil Society Observer, and Zimbabwe's The Daily Mirror. Her fiction exposé of insurance fraud in the horse industry, Horse Sense, was re-released in early 2006. Gorilla Dreams: The Legacy of Dian Fossey was also released in 2006. Nienaber spent much of 2007 doing research in South Africa, Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo. She was in DRC as a MONUC-accredited journalist, and recently spent six weeks in Southern Louisiana investigating hurricane reconstruction. She is currently developing a documentary on the Gulf of Mexico DEAD ZONE.
Consider writing about this issue from your professional perspective. It was suggested to me and I have come to believe that this failure of infrastructure will soon be comparable to Chernobyl. The US is on the same path that the former USSR was on 22 years ago. All of our money is going to the military and society is crumbling and no one is accountable.
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Georgianne Nienaber (145 articles, 46 quicklinks, 13 diaries, 338 comments)
on Tuesday, June 17, 2008 at 5:46:57 PM
Build or repair an infrastructure for 300 million when we will be depopulated to 100 million by the neo-malthusian elite.
Whats happening to the US is not an accident, or a product of lack of money. It is by design. The US is being dismantled. We have served the purpose of the globalist elite. Mission Accomplished. Now we must revert to 2nd world status so we can be comfortably merged with the rest of the world. Our future role is more of as an agrarian society and as the global governments policeman, not to mention as a natural resource provider. Thats why we allow illegal immigrants, they are better workers on a farm. The infrastructure required for the future will be entirely different than the one we have now. Less cities, more farms, more mining and oil drilling, fewer people.
Government could easily create it's own debt free money and loan it out at low interest, payable only when the infrastructure project has been completed and generating revenue. They refuse, because they are controlled by the financial oligarchy who profit from debt, and more important, control nations with debt. They essentially serve the defacto Global Government.
The biggest obstacle to recovering our democracy is the belief that we still have one. Unfortunately, this belief is strongly held.
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pft (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 329 comments)
on Wednesday, June 18, 2008 at 2:40:13 AM
We really don't need cynics right now. The pathetic plans of Malthusian intellectual sophists should be pissed on, not bowed before. Are you a fighter or a fatalist?
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Mac McKinney (42 articles, 62 quicklinks, 146 diaries, 984 comments)
on Wednesday, June 18, 2008 at 11:50:11 AM
Levees, spillways and dams are designed by 'civil engineers'.500 year flood levels are created by engineering researchers.Failures to properly predict the flood levels sounds like professional carelessness to many of us.These 'engineers’ are usually members of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) and are often working for the Corps of Engineers as well as local governments. Iowa, Illinois and Minnesota are suffering because 'civil engineers' failed to do their job.Be ready for the ASCE and the Corps to come in on their paper white horses and pretend to be your savior. Be aware that these are the organizations of the engineers that, through missteps and carelessness caused the destruction of your properties and businesses. They will never get the blame they deserve because the Beltway PR firms will blame YOU, the local people and officials, in the studies and press releases. The ASCE and the Corps will douse any logical complaint just like they flooded your infrastructure. The Civil Engineering profession in your area is shaking in their shoes and will get behind the ASCE and the Corps like bad children run behind their fat momma's house dress when confronted. Prepare now for a deliberate spin and smear campaign by the ASCE and their profession!
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W. T. Ango (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 3 comments)
on Wednesday, June 18, 2008 at 12:57:18 PM
