News Release Manager

Corps of Engineers expands regional floodfight in Missouri and Arkansas

Published May 2, 2017
MEMPHIS, Tenn., May 2, 2017 – The Memphis District, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) began Phase II floodfight activities at 7 a.m. on May 2 in the vicinity of Cape Girardeau, Mo., due to high river stages on the Upper Mississippi River. The area of current or possible flooding is located in the Charleston (Missouri) Floodfight Areas on the Upper Mississippi River. The community of Scott City, Mo., and low lying roads in that vicinity may be affected.

As of Tuesday morning approximately 22 USACE field personnel from the Memphis District were deployed in the Missouri bootheel and northwestern Arkansas. The field personnel are conducting patrols each day from 6 a.m. until 6:30 p.m., checking the condition of levees and other flood protection structures and looking for problems like water seepage under levees. They are supported by 10 additional employees working at the USACE Emergency Operations Center at the District Headquarters office in Memphis.

During a Phase II activation, USACE personnel intensively monitor government flood risk reduction works. They also make technical and materiel assistance available to local communities and flood control organizations to aid them in their floodfighting efforts.

The Memphis District has provided additional assistance to local authorities as follows:

  • 100,000 sandbags were supplied to the Missouri State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA) for use in the upper St. Francis River basin.
  • Two portable pumps were loaned to local officials in Alexander County, Ill., and two more to local officials in Dyer County, Tenn., for possible use in removing interior impounded rainfall.
  • 100,000 additional sandbags and eight portable pumps are being prepositioned at the USACE Area Office in Caruthersville, Mo.

Citizens are strongly encouraged to stay in touch with their local authorities and emergency management officials for updates on conditions in their areas.

The USACE Division headquarters in Vicksburg, Miss, coordinates all floodfight activities in the Mississippi Valley. The USACE Emergency Operations Center in Memphis directs all floodfight activities in its area of responsibility in conjunction with the affected states, levee districts and other local interest groups.

The Federal flood protection works in the Mississippi Valley protect many thousands of homes, millions of lives and vast tracts of fertile cropland. The Memphis District’s flood risk reduction system has prevented more than $4.3 billion in flood damages and protected more than five million acres of cropland in the last decade alone.

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Contact
Jim Pogue
901-544-4109
james.t.pogue@usace.army.mil

Release no. 17-006