• Home
  • News
    • Politics & Government
    • Business & Economy
    • Crime / Courts
    • Health / Medicine
  • Sports
    • High School Sports
    • Radio Iowa Poll
  • Affiliates
    • Affiliate Support Page
  • Contact Us
    • Reporters

Radio Iowa

Iowa's Radio News Network

You are here: Home / Fires/Accidents/Disasters / Senator Grassley criticizes Corps of Engineers for handling of water releases

Senator Grassley criticizes Corps of Engineers for handling of water releases

March 19, 2019 By Matt Kelley

Senator Chuck Grassley

Leaders of water-inundated towns in southwest Iowa are blaming the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for blundering decisions that may have contributed to the region’s widespread flooding.

Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley says he “absolutely” will call for an inquiry into the Corps’ actions, like ordering the town of Hamburg to remove reinforcements from a levee which protected the town in the 2011 floods. “When a town was trying to help themselves and then have to take protection down and then get flooded like they have now, where it’s probably worse than it was in 2011,” Grassley says, “we have to have a complete review of the manual that governs all that.”

The Corps is also being criticized for having radically boosted releases recently from Gavins Point Dam upriver on the Missouri River and for now vowing to cut back the flow when the damage is already done. Critics say it’s far too little, too late.”Now that this flooding is taking place, to have the Corps say that some of the dams, that they’re going to shut down releases right now as the flooding is happening, not being on top of it ahead of time, trying to anticipate things,” Grassley says. “It’s ridiculous.”

Defenders of the Corps’ actions say it was the perfect storm of conditions that brought the unstoppable flooding, with frozen soil, a deep snowpack that melted quickly, and heavy rain showers. Grassley disagrees and says the Corps’ should have known better.”Anticipating weather ahead of time, they just didn’t take that into consideration,” Grassley says. “The tremendous rain and storms they recently had in Nebraska is a perfect example of being out in front of it instead of always being behind the curve.”

Grassley says the Corps’ river management priority list includes several elements, like maintaining water levels for commercial and recreational boating, when he says the number-one concern should be flood prevention.

Share this:

  • Facebook
  • Twitter

Filed Under: Fires/Accidents/Disasters, News, Politics / Govt, Top Story Tagged With: Chuck Grassley, Republican Party

Featured Stories

Governor signs child care expansion into law

Iowa seniors have until July 1 to apply for new property tax break

Smoke from distant fires creates colorful sunrise in Iowa

DOT’s Motor Vehicle Enforcement Division to merge into State Patrol

Iowa’s governor approves liability limits for trucking industry

TwitterFacebook
Tweets by RadioIowa

Iowa AD Gary Barta announces retirement

Iowa to visit Creighton in Gavitt Tipoff Games

Iowa and Indiana collide Thursday at B1G baseball tournament

Former Hawkeye joins Lisa Bluder’s staff at Iowa

Iowa rolls in B1G Tournament opener

More Sports

Archives

Copyright © 2023 ยท Learfield News & Ag, LLC