Levees protect people, towns, and agriculture from flooding. But two years ago, parts of the Missouri River and its tributaries reached record crests, and many levees failed. Now there’s a rare effort to build a levee higher to better defend one southwest Iowa town.

Hamburg in southwest Iowa sits five miles from the Missouri River, sandwiched between it and the Nishnabotna River. Just outside of town, the Ditch 6 levee stretches for a mile and a half, shielding the town of 1,100 people from runoff from the Loess Hills to the north and east. Built in 1998, it also serves as a secondary line of defense for Hamburg’s industrial buildings and homes if a main levee along the Missouri River is overtopped or breached.

Hamburg has seen its share of flooding in recent decades, including 1952, 1993, 2011 and 2019. The Corps of Engineers has contracted Darin Hendrickson’s construction company, Hendrickson Enterprises, to build the Ditch 6 levee 8 feet higher. Hendrickson, a lifelong resident of Hamburg, said this project is a big deal for the town.

Hamburg has seen its share of flooding in recent decades, including 1952, 1993, 2011 and 2019. The Corps of Engineers has contracted Darin Hendrickson’s construction company, Hendrickson Enterprises, to build the Ditch 6 levee 8 feet higher. Hendrickson, a lifelong resident of Hamburg, said this project is a big deal for the town.

In 2011, the Ditch 6 levee saved Hamburg, and the community has wanted to build it higher ever since.

As floodwaters rushed toward Hamburg in June of that year, the Corps of Engineers worked with Hendrickson and others to raise the levee’s height. They added 8 feet of dirt, plus an extra foot to account for the flooding conditions.

“The water was coming up against the back of the levee as we were building it,” Hendrickson said. “So it was nail biting.”

Hamburg was spared.

But the addition was only temporary. The Corps said the construction wasn’t ideal, so Hamburg needed to either tear it down or rebuild it to proper code. To rebuild it, Hamburg would have to pay nearly $5 million. So residents filled the town’s main street for a flash mob to raise the money.

According to the town’s mayor, Hamburg only raised about $53,000, so it had to take down the extra dirt. Then in March 2019, another flood came.

Read the full article about flood protection by Katie Peikes at Harvest Public Media.