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Missouri River levee fails near Hamburg, Iowa

St. Louis Public Radio
Published June 13, 2011 at 11:44 a.m. CDT
An aerial photo, taken June 6, of an earlier partial breach in a levee in Atchison County, Mo. Another partial breach was reported June 9 approximately 80 feet north of two previous breaches. Another breach has been reported today.
(Via Flickr/USACEPublicAffairs)
An aerial photo, taken June 6, of an earlier partial breach in a levee in Atchison County, Mo. Another partial breach was reported June 9 approximately 80 feet north of two previous breaches. Another breach has been reported today.

Updated at 2:07 p.m. with more details - new version of story from Associated Press.

Updated at 12:09 p.m. - see photos of the levee breach on the Atchison County 911/Emergency Management Facebook page.

The rising Missouri River has ruptured two levees in northwest Missouri, sending torrents of flood waters over
rural farmland toward the Iowa town of Hamburg and the Missouri state park and resort of Big Lake.

The levee failures both happened Monday morning.

One levee about 5 miles south of Hamburg has a 50-foot-wide hole in it. The National Weather Service estimates the flood water will reach the Hamburg area sometime Tuesday.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is working to make sure a secondary levee around Hamburg is completed in time. The Corps started building that secondary levee last week after  three partial breaches in the Missouri River levee.

Holt County, Mo., officials say the river punched a 75-foot-wide hole through a levee about 5 miles west of Big Lake.

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Missouri River Flooding 2011Flooding
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