County commission wants proof breach worked

CHARLESTON, Mo. (AP) - Members of a county commission in southeast Missouri say they keep hearing how well the Army Corps of Engineers' intentional breach of the Birds Point levee worked at the height of flooding in May. Now, they want the corps to prove it.

The Southeast Missourian (http://bit.ly/nFBwGu) reported Wednesday that the Mississippi County Commission has filed a Freedom of Information Act request seeking corps records and communications related to the decision to blow holes in the levee. The explosions were done to reduce the river level enough so that nearby Cairo, Ill., would be spared from flooding.

The corps has said the plan worked exactly as it was designed. But the intentional breach caused 130,000 acres of Missouri farmland to flood, much of it in Mississippi County.

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Information from: Southeast Missourian, http://www.semissourian.com