Missouri takes levee battle to U.S. Supreme Court

[alp227]

Source: CNN

(CNN) -- Missouri on Sunday asked the U.S. Supreme Court to halt a plan to intentionally breach a levee on the rain-swollen Mississippi River, flooding Missouri farmland in an effort to save an Illinois town.

Earlier, Missouri filed a federal suit to block the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers from following through on its plan to breach the Birds Point-New Madrid levee. A federal judge on Friday ruled against Missouri, saying a 1928 law permits the breach of the levee to ease pressure on the river.

Missouri Attorney General Chris Koster filed an application for an injunction to the high court on Sunday. It was assigned to Justice Samuel Alito, according to the U.S. Supreme Court's website.

The Corps of Engineers says the action is necessary to save the town of Cairo, Illinois, although it will flood rural Missouri farm communities. "I know that the price being paid is high," said Maj. Gen. Michael Walsh on Saturday.

Read more: http://www.cnn.com/2011/US/05/01/missouri.levee.breach/index.html

[Ex Lurker]

1. There are class and race elements in this

Cairo is mostly poor and black. The Missouri side is mostly middle class and white. At any rate, if I understand correctly, the Corps holds easements on this land. It should be an open and shut case. I sympathize with the people in Missouri, but they've known it was a designated emergency floodplain for years. When they decided to live there, it should have been with the understanding that this could happen.

[SkyDaddy7]

2. YES IT IS! There is a video...

Of a white lawmaker saying he would flood the town with minorities & laughing about it with others in a room full of people! It was disgusting!

I wish I knew how to find it. I "THINK" I may have saw it on the daily show but I am not sure.

[krkaufman]

9. If it's the clip I saw, your comment misstates the quote.

The MO House Speaker said he'd flood Cairo, without mention of minorities or any population. He commented, with far too much humor, that given the choice between flooding Cairo or Missouri farmland, he'd definitely flood Cairo, adding "I've seen it. Have you seen it."

His comments could be interpreted as a statement of the current conditions of the town, relative to the economic value of the Missouri farmland that will be flooded, without consideration of the demographics of Cairo's remaining residents.

Or he could have had the worse, racial intent, but that intent wasn't obvious from his quote, however inconsiderate.

[SkyDaddy7]

12. I don't think it does at all...

The person in the video was laughing & making negative remarks...No, he did not specifically say anything racist but he was saying that farmland should be spared & an area that is mostly minorities should be flooded instead.

Yes, one could say this man meant nothing racist but if that is the case he was still advocating flooding peoples homes to save farmland. Which I am sure the land in question is valuable & the person or persons who own it are rich & have more political say than a town of minorities.

My opinion is race was involved in this man's comments.

[SkyDaddy7]

11. ...

[provis99]

5. Cairo looked Old South when I last saw it.

Poverty stricken and segregated; looked like a Mississippi Delta town.

[Ex Lurker]

6. Southern Illinois is further south than a lot of areas generally considered as part of the South

Richmond, for instance.

[madrchsod]

3. it`s time to move cairo to higher ground

in the 1930`s the state and the wpa moved shawneetown, illinois to higher ground.

http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~ilgalla2/shawneetown.html

[Ex Lurker]

4. A lot of unemployed construction workers could be put to good use doing that nt.

[donco]

7. Valmeyer Illinois

Was moved to a bluff above the town after the Flood of 1993.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York_Times

[wysingm]

8. That's sad.

In the book Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain the characters Huck and Jim had to raft up river towards Cairo, Illinois so Jim could no longer be a slave.

May 1

CAIRO, IL (KTVI-FOX2now.com)— The entire town of Cairo, Illinois is being evacuated as the flooding Mississippi and Ohio Rivers creeps in. Mayor Judson Childs ordered the city's 2,800 residents to leave by midnight and Illinois National Guard troops went door to door with law enforcers to enforce the mayor's "mandatory" order.

Emergency management workers and city engineers say the largest sand boil they have ever seen is compromising the levee protecting the city.

Thunderstorms dumped rain overnight on the already waterlogged region, and water levels hit a record along the Ohio River early Sunday. According to the National Weather Service, at 4 a.m. Sunday, the Ohio River topped a 1937 record of 59.50 feet by reaching 59.59 feet in Cairo.

http://www.fox2now.com/news/ktvi-mandatory-evacuations-cairo-il-levee-flooding-050111,0,194399.story?track=rss

[Johnny Morales]

10. The farmers have already been PRE-PAID for the loss of land

It takes some nerve for the state then to demand NOT flood the land, and let little Cairo drown.

Several legislatures in Missouri made comments reminiscent of what a few Federal House members said about New Orleans when it was flooded - that it wasn't worth saving or losing farmland to save that worthless town.