Gov. Nixon to survey Birds Point today

Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon will be in Mississippi County this afternoon to survey the progress being made to rebuild sections of the Birds Point-New Madrid Floodway levee that were intentionally breached in May. He will also inspect flood damage at Big Oak Tree State Park in East Prairie, Mo.

According to a spokesman, Nixon will be taking a driving tour beginning shortly after 2 p.m., starting at the first breach point in the floodway's northernmost edge. Nixon will make intermittent stops, she said, to get out and inspect the work that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is doing to temporarily repair the levee that it breached in May.

Nixon will make statements to the media at 4 p.m. at Big Oak Tree State Park Visitors Center.

The corps intentionally breached the levee in May to relieve pressure on other flooding communities along the Mississippi River. In mid-June, the corps began rebuilding the levee with what a corps spokesman called "a temporary fix."