HAMBURG, Iowa (AP) - The southwestern Iowa town of Hamburg, which has spent much of the last decade fighting for federal approval to raise its flood protection levee, finally got it this week.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers on Wednesday announced it had approved the city’s plan to raise the levee by about 8 feet. The decision comes nearly 10 years after the Corps scrambled to help the town of about 1,200 temporarily raise the levee to 18 feet in June 2011, when the Missouri River broke through one of its nearby levees.
The quick work of the town’s people and the Corps saved Hamburg from devastating floods that year. But once the floodwaters subsided, the Corps insisted that the work be undone, noting that the hastily-erected earthen levee was never meant to be permanent. The town sought for years to get approval to raise the levee again, only to see historic floods in 2019 overtop the lowered levee and inundate the town.
Hamburg will provide between $7 million and $8 million it has raised from state and federal funding for the project, the Corps said.
The Corps said the project is the first approved under new legislation that allows it to cut through red tape and more quickly provide federal funds for levees. The legislation was introduced by Rep. Cindy Axne, D-Iowa, following the 2019 floods
Please read our comment policy before commenting.