Event # 2: Blowing Up the Levees!

Levee detonation lowers river, triggers new lawsuit

By Mary Wisniewski

CHARLESTON, Missouri | Tue May 3, 2011 6:40pm EDT

(Reuters) – The effort to protect river towns in Illinois and Kentucky from rising floodwaters by blowing open a levee and inundating more than 100,000 acres of Missouri farmland appeared to be slowly working on Tuesday.

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Tuesday, May 3, 2011

An explosion lights up the night sky as the the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers blows an 11,000 foot hole in the Birds Point levee in Mississippi County, Mo. on Monday, May 2, 2011. Army Corps of Engineers’ Maj. Gen. Michael Walsh gave the order to blow a two-mile hole into the Birds Point levee in southeast Missouri, which will flood 130,000 acres of farmland in Missouri’s Mississippi County but protect nearby Cairo, Ill.
(AP Photo/St. Louis Post-Dispatch, David Carson)

Midwest Katrina: Did the Army Corps of Engineers Cause the Midwest Flooding of 2011?

When the levees broke following Hurricane Katrina, many looked at the Army Corp of Engineers and wondered why they hadn’t upgraded the levees over the years. A report found the Corp responsible for their failures and they apologized.

At the same time, outside engineers reported the Army Corp of Engineers was “dysfunctional and unreliable.” Their dysfunction resulted in massive flooding and death in New Orleans.

Yesterday, a levee was breached in Atchison County, Missouri which will result in the flooding of Hamburg, Iowa. At this time, Fort Calhoun Nuclear Power Plant near Omaha, Nebraska has over 16 inches of water across its protected area. The Missouri river is expected to continue to rise because Gavins Point Dam in Yankton, South Dakota is releasing a record 150,000 cubic feet per second.  Read more…

Engineers will blow up Missouri levee, official says

May 2nd, 2011

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers will blow up a levee at the confluence of the Mississippi and Ohio rivers due to record high-water levels in both rivers, with work beginning Monday night, said Maj. Gen. Michael Walsh, president of the Mississippi River Commission.

At 4 p.m. Monday, water levels outside Cairo, Illinois, were 61.4 feet – well above the flood stage of 40 feet – according to the National Weather Service. Walsh ordered the intentional breach to alleviate pressure in the river system and to protect Cairo, even though it may lead to the flooding of 130,000 acres of mostly farmland in Missouri.

Missouri officials have been fighting the proposed levee breach.

Dams and Reservoirs on the Upper Missouri River

Two dams have greatly affected the Missouri River in North Dakota since the expedition of Lewis and Clark.  Those dams are Garrison Dam between Pick City and Riverdale, North Dakota, and Oahe Dam near Pierre, South Dakota.

The Missouri River drains one–sixth of the United States and flows 2,341 miles from its headwaters at the confluence of the Gallatin, Madison, and Jefferson Rivers at Three Forks, Montana, to its confluence with the Mississippi River at St. Louis, Missouri (U.S. Geological Survey, 2001).

One–third of the Missouri River has been transformed into lake environments, due to six dams built in Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Nebraska (U.S. Geological Survey, 2001). Four of these dams, Fort Peck in Montana, Garrison in North Dakota, and Oahe and Fort Randall in South Dakota, are among the world’s largest dams in terms of volume (The Learning Network, Inc.).  The remaining dams are Big Bend in South Dakota and Gavins Point on the South Dakota–Nebraska border.

Source: USGS Read More

Free Flow: Will the Biggest Ever Dam Removal Return the Wild to the Elwha River?

 BY VALERIE RAPP

July 25, 2011

In 1910, Thomas Aldwell began building the first of two dams across the Elwha River on Washington’s Olympic Peninsula. His dream was to provide clean, cheap hydropower to nearby Port Angeles. This September, the federal government will start to blow up those dams. Native Americans and fish biologists dream of freeing the river and seeing the Elwha’s legendary wild salmon runs return.

Bold, visionary action or federal boondoggle? You can find people who feel both ways about the biggest dam removal ever in the United States.  Read More

Globalist Plot To Blow Up 26,000 Dams & Takeover Water

Thursday, August 23, 2012  Mort Amsel

I have been following the efforts by the federal corporation that operates under fraud as the “federal government”, especially in the area of water.  Water rights, water access and water availability are seriously threatened by both factions of the political crime syndicate that is the federal corporation a.k.a., “the Federal Government”.  There is no such entity, only a massive and hostile corporation that is foreign and hostile to the states.  At issue now is our water.   Read More

Army Corps of Engineers braces for flood fight (Video)

Posted on: 9:54 pm, March 6, 2013, by Gia Vang

ST. JOSEPH, Mo. – The 2011 flooding scarred thousands of acres and damaged countless businesses and homes and farms.  But now the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers brace for a court fight.

Property owner Kenneth Reeder can point to how high the water got in his home next to the Missouri River.  The water stayed there for several weeks and he is still recovering.  Reeder puts some of the blame on the Army Corps for mismanaging the river.

“We helped solve far greater damage. Well in that case if you look at it, then maybe there should be a certain amount of compensation,” Reeder said.

He might get just that. Reeder, who also owns land along the river and serves on a federal study group for the corps, said he will be among hundreds of others treading the same water in a lawsuit against the corps for that flood season.

The effort is being handled by the St. Joseph law firm, Murphy, Taylor, Siemens & Elliott P.C.  Nancy Potter, a lawyer with the firm, said they are still seeking clients, even with the hundreds they have currently.

“We have hundreds of clients up and down the Missouri River from South Dakota through Nebraska and Iowa, Missouri and Kansas,” Potter said.

The U.S Supreme Court ruled unanimously in an Arkansas case in December, saying under the Fifth Amendment, flooding there constituted a

“taking” of land for public purposes and warrants compensation.

Potter said the firm was watching that case closely.  Now, they hope to have the same outcome.

“It’s a huge undertaking and I think that it will change a lot that happens a long the Missouri River,” Potter said.

But for Reeder, it’s not just about winning.

“At this point, it’s that that we have broken or cracked that bubble with the glass ceiling that the

Corps of Engineers operates unaccountable to taxpayers,” Reeder said.

A spokesperson for the area’s U.S Army Corps of Engineers said they’ve rehabilitated many levees in the area after the flood, but she could not comment on the possibility of a lawsuit over flood damage.

ABQ District Corps of Engineers and Army Divers work on the John Martin Dam

Published on Oct 18, 2012