Dozens of levee breaches in Midwest expose a 'Swiss cheese' system of flood protection, aging and under threat

The Missouri River breached this levee near Fortescue, Missouri. (Photo by Tim Gruber, The New York Times)

Hundreds of miles of Midwest levees have been overwhelmed by floods, "leaving 'Swiss cheese' infrastructure and reigniting a flood-control debate," The New York Times reports.

"With dozens of costly breaks across Nebraska, Iowa, Missouri and nearby states, the surging waters have left large areas without even cursory flood protection," Mitch Smith and John Schwartz report. "And with the fear of more floods in the coming years — and perhaps even the coming weeks — many people said living and farming near the water might not be viable much longer without major changes."

The reporters note that the levees are old, "subject to uneven regulation and, in many cases, never designed to withstand the river levels seen in the last decade. . . . The situation has been exacerbated by wetter rainstorms, which are expected to worsen over time and have been attributed to climate change. . . .The recent flooding — which has devastated farms, roads and Native American reservations — has pushed to the foreground a debate that has raged quietly for generations. It boils down to this: How should the rivers be controlled, who should make those decisions and how much protection should be given to those most vulnerable?"

The levees are mainly managed by local levee districts, which "often do not coordinate or even follow the same rules," the Times reports. "With increased flooding in the past few years, the levees are being tested more frequently than ever before, straining the finances and expertise of some of those districts. The levee situation has become so grave that the American Society of Civil Engineers gave the country’s levee system a D grade in 2017, suggesting $80 billion in investment over 10 years."