CORPS BRACES LOW SPOTS ON RIVER LEVEE

Some 40 dump trucks have been dumping 6,000 to 7,000 tons of gravel a day to build up low spots on a 10-mile stretch of the Mississippi River levee south of Commerce.

When the project is finished, about 40,000 tons of rock will have been dumped on the levee

"There really isn't any danger of this levee being topped," said Robert Smith with the Corps of Engineers at Paducah, Ky.

The extra feet of levee provides a safety margin against waves from the flooding water.

"When you drove along the levee, with the water right up next to it, you could see the low spots," Smith said.

When the river was at its crest and rain continued to fall to the north, the Corps decided to go ahead and raise the low spots along the levee.

The project, south of flooded Commerce, provides no protection for that community.