LEVEES ARE A SUCCESS, CORPS SAYS

Mississippi River levees have held their ground in battling floods, the Corps of Engineers says.

Levees, floodwalls, and pumping stations in the Corps' Memphis District protected $3.5 billion in property and crops from floodwaters over the past three years.

The district extends along both sides of the river from just south of Cape Girardeau to Rosedale, Miss. The district has 1,200 miles of levees, including 600 main-line levees.

From spring 1993 to this summer, five million acres of land -- an area about three times the size of Rhode Island -- were protected from flooding.

"It is good to let the taxpayers know that not every government agency is a boondoggle," said the Corps' Robert Anderson.

The Memphis District spent $1.2 million to fight the 1995 flood, but the flood-control system prevented $1.36 billion in damages, said Anderson.

The district raised nine miles of threatened levees from Commerce to Birds Point with 60,000 tons of crushed limestone in just 12 days during the most recent flood.

Federal engineers and contractors also constructed a temporary stone levee at Dutchtown in less than a day. Working through the night, contractors placed almost 5,000 tons of rock to fend off fast-rising floodwaters, Anderson said.

The Memphis District distributed 108,500 sandbags and 405 rolls of protective, plastic sheeting during the 1995 flood. It also provided 14 pumps and 36 sections of hose in efforts to protect homes and businesses from the flood.

Without the levee system, the lower Mississippi River would have been devastated by floods over the past three years, Anderson said.