The Army Corps of Engineers blew out part of a levee on Monday in order to save Cairo, Illinois, from drowning. But the effect on a massive area of farmland and farmers is huge. A group of them are suing.
"After the detonation of part of the Birds Point levee Monday night to ease pressure from the swelling Mississippi River, aerial photographs showed farmhouses, barns and outbuildings in the middle of fields with water rising around them."
From the St Louis Post-Dispatch: "Bob Byrne, 59, farms 550 acres below the Missouri levee.
"It's a sickening feeling," he said. "They're talking about not getting the water off until late July or early August. That knocks out a whole season."
In the 1980s, when the floodway plan was under review, Bennett said, officials estimated that activating the floodway would cost residents and the county $300 million. Today, he said, losses probably will total close to $1 billion.
U.S. Rep. Jo Ann Emerson, R-Cape Girardeau, said Monday that U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack had assured her that farmers in the floodway who had crop insurance would be compensated as if this man-made flood were a natural disaster. "I know that helps a lot of people, but not everybody," she said."
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