Corps of Engineers returns to floodfight response Phase I level in northern areas

MEMPHIS, Tenn., March 24, 2011 – With falling Ohio and Mississippi River levels, the
Memphis District, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers lowered their floodfight activation level to Phase I in
the Cairo (Illinois), Missouri (bootheel) and Reelfoot-Obion (Tennessee) areas at 1 a.m. on March 23.

At the Phase I floodfight activation level, Corps of Engineers personnel will remain deployed in
the field and monitor all federal flood control works including levees, flood walls and pumping stations.
However, field offices established in Cape Girardeau and Caruthersville, Mo., and Dyersburg, Tenn.,
will be closed and those additional personnel activated to staff them will return to their normal duties.

The Corps of Engineers initially activated a Phase I floodfight in these northern areas of the
Memphis District on March 8, and elevated the alert level to Phase II on March 14.

During the Phase II floodfight activities, Corps of Engineers personnel conducted more intensive
monitoring of flood control works including levees, floodwalls and pumping stations. They also ensured
technical and materiel assistance was available to local communities and flood control organizations to
aid them in their floodfighting efforts.

Closer to the Corps’ District headquarters in Memphis, the Memphis and West Memphis areas
have been taken out of Phase I floodfight condition as the Mississippi River crests there. The river is
forecasted to fall slowly over the next few days and drop below flood stage sometime next week.

The Corps of Engineers will continue to monitor river levels throughout the spring and will
respond as necessary should river levels again rise above Corps activation stages.
The Corps’ Division Headquarters in Vicksburg, Miss, coordinates all floodfight activities in the
Mississippi Valley. The Corps’ Emergency Operations Center in Memphis is directing these floodfight
activities 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 control 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.