Quoted:



Interesting read at the link;

Excerpt;

The decision – which has been fiercely contested in the courts – set a fading town of 2,800 mainly African American residents against relatively well-off farmers. "Making this decision is not easy or hard," Major-General Michael Walsh, commander of the army corps, told reporters. "It's simply grave – because the decision leads to loss of property and livelihood, either in a floodway or in an area that was not designed to flood."

By Tuesday morning, the water levels surrounding Cairo had fallen to 18.4 metres, from 18.8 metres and rising before the breach. The national weather service said the river was expected to recede to 17.9 metres by Saturday.

But a great swathe of farm country was being slowly flooded in muddy water. A village called Pin Hook was completely flooded. Farmers in Missouri said the blast would destroy an entire year of crops.

"It's a sickening feeling," said Bob Byrne, who farms 550 acres below the levee. "They're talking about not getting the water off until late July or early August. That knocks out a whole season."

Walsh has also indicated that he may have to blow up other levees downstream to try to contain the worst flooding in the area since 1927.

Cairo, which lies on the confluence of the Mississippi and Ohio rivers, was an important steamboat port in the 1800s, and served for a few months as the headquarters for the union armies of Ulysses Grant early in the civil war. But the town is long past its heyday, and the decision to save Cairo outraged Missouri farmers and state officials who had fought to block the levee demolition in court.

Quoted:


Sometimes instead of taking I-75 i'll drive up Hwy 41 here in GA, it's neat to see some of the old abandoned gas stations and hotels with 50's or earlier styling

Quoted:
Hickman is a real shit hole. Literally no jobs. Everyone who lives there works elsewhere.  Whenever I would go there I would be reminded of the scene of Bratislava from Euro trip  

Quoted:
Yep. Fuck Cairo, Illinois.

http://www.semissourian.com/gallery/7933/

http://www.farmgateblog.com/article/1386/the-losses-are-beginning-to-be-estimated-from-the-destruction-of-the-birds-

Quoted:
Stay in Cairo, do an AAR, . . . . . . . .

Quoted:



Uh uh, no Class 3 allowed in IL besides SBR's.

Quoted:


It would have potential if it wasn't in Illinois.

Quoted:


This. To a large extent the Interstate system destroyed small town America.

Quoted:


In 2011 the US Army Corps of Engineers blew up the main line Mississippi River levy in order to save Cairo, Il.

And, in the process, they flooded 130,000 acres of prime Missouri farmland and 90 farm houses.

Without an intentional breach, authorities had warned of massive flooding that could wipe out Cairo.

Sounds like politics may have played a role in the decision.

The story:  Link

Quoted:



They dynamited the levee in darkness so no one could record the event or witness the devastation of entire farms, homes and cattle being swallowed up and washed away in a mud tsunami. I believe it was well over the 130,000 acres reported. Tens of millions of dollars damage to Missouri.

Over 200 sq miles of farmlands. Over 52,000 hectares.

...for a fucking shit hole city built at the confluence of two great rivers reliant on government subsidies to exist and perpetuate itself.  The city could have and should have been evacuated. The flood waters would have receded. The remaining island should have been turned into a nature preserve.

It was an evil decision that unfairly punished Missouri farmers.

Another aggression.