Feds: 26 levees could overflow if sandbags fail

[lovuian]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080617/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/midwest_flooding_forecast

WASHINGTON - The federal government predicts that 27 levees could potentially overflow along the Mississippi River if the weather forecast is on the mark and a massive sandbagging effort fails to raise the level of the levees, according to a map obtained Monday by The Associated Press.


Officials are placing millions of sandbags on top of the levees along the river in Illinois, Iowa and Missouri to prevent overflowing. There is no way to predict whether these levees will break, said Ron Fournier, a spokesman with the Army Corps of Engineers in Iowa. "That's a crystal ball that nobody has," he told the AP.

The levees in New Orleans broke during Hurricane Katrina, causing catastrophic flooding.

Record-breaking storms and flooding across six states this month continue to force thousands of people to evacuate and seek shelter. Since June 6, there have been 22 deaths, 85 injuries and more than 26,000 power outages because of the storms and flooding, according to the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

The disasters are not as catastrophic as 2005's Hurricane Katrina, when at least 1,600 people were killed.
more...
Hang onto your hats people

[Selatius]

1. It makes you wonder how prepared FEMA is for this year's HURRICANE SEASON.

Are we going to see anymore Category 5 nightmares floating around in the ocean?

[lovuian]

2. Fema???FEMA what is FEMA???

Are they like the FDA and EPA ??? or the FBI or the CIA or DOD

are they the ones who we pay and they don't do a damn thing

[az chela]

4. Yup thats exactly who they are

[rucky]

13. It's a purebread horse club.

Arabians, I think.

They do a heckova job.

[Kool Kitty]

3. The crawl on CNN had an item that said

that if a category 2 or weak category 3 hits NO, the levees could be overtopped AGAIN. Now they aren't even trying to fix anything. What exactly have they done since 2005?

[Selatius]

5. There was a report that say one witness say a contractor used NEWSPAPERS to PATCH a BROKEN levee.

Newspapers, for crying out loud. FEMA and the Army Corps didn't even vett some of these contractors.

Here's the local story:

http://www.wwltv.com/local/stories/wwl042408tpleveepaper.98095b74.html

[Kool Kitty]

6. Oh, for Christ's sake.

Newspapers? Thanks for the link. Like I said, they aren't even trying anymore.

[Carnea]

7. Now thats not fair it includes sturdier materials

such as parade magazine.... I'm in favor of universal health care... as in everyone is covered and everyone has to have insurance. But when people talk about the government actually running health care I think of stories like this one.

[Selatius]

8. That's what you get when you let the White House run a program. We can do it better than that.

A good example is Social Security. It was built in such a way such that it has a level of autonomy from the passing political whims of whoever sits in the White House. If universal health care is to come to America, it should be modeled after Social Security to prevent it from being destroyed.

[ColbertWatcher]

9. No, that's what you get when you let a republican run a program.

Otherwise, I agree with you about Social Security and Universal Healthcare.

[ColbertWatcher]

10. I posted this in another thread...

...and I'm too lazy to copy/paste/reformat it, so here is the link.

It has pictures!

[countryjake]

11. Significant River Flood Outlook...

http://www.weather.gov/ahps/

[laylah]

12. I was told by a city

worker that helped bag 1000's pounds of sand yesterday, along with IDOT, that Iowa is going to lose US 61 to the Wapsi River if we get the rain that is predicted for this week-end. It is just getting worse as the rains keep coming.

And where the F*CK is numbnuts? I think he'd be smart to stay the hell away from the flood area, he's a very unpopular asshole around here these days (and has been for some time).

edited to add link for road closures across the state of iowa http://www.iowaroadconditions.org/roadconditions.asp

[countryjake]

14. That's a handy link to have...thanks. n/t

[lovuian]

15. You know I remember Edgar Cayce saying the Great Lakes

would overflow into the Mississippi

causing massive flooding ...this is the heart of the food for America

[countryjake]

16. Me too! I was thinking of his predictions back at the start of the month...

when all these storms first began pounding the Midwest.

The new inland sea!