Letter to the Editor

Levee breech had other benefits

On Wednesday you used an AP 2011 file photo of the flooded Birds Point levee. I object to its caption, which probably came from the AP, and said the levee was blown "to reduce the river level just enough to spare nearby Cairo Â… where 72 percent of the residents are black."

When the initial repair was nearly complete, I visited the site and talked with an assistant supervisor who shared his frustration with the news media claim that the levee was only opened to save Cairo. He pointed out there was heavy flooding pressure to the upper and lower Mississippi River, the Missouri, Ohio and even Tennessee and Cumberland Rivers, which this levee break helped alleviate.

I would support leaving a shorter levee to keep some of the river's natural floodplain. Does everything have to be a race issue?

FRED KELLER, Cape Girardeau