The tragedies in Illinois, Iowa and Missouri have been terrible to watch on the news.  I watched in horror, as towns and homes were flooded to almost the top of the roof of flood waters.  The states were suppose to re-do the current levees along the Mississippi River and unfortunately nothing has been done.  This goes the same for after Hurricane Katrina where the levees broke and flooded many of the cities.

There was a devastating flood in the Midwest about 15 years ago and so the committee drew up a 272 page report, suggesting that a better approach should be taken to prevent this type of tragedy from occurring again in the future.

The levees are owned by the cities and towns, along with being maintained by agencies and farmers who are not necessarily authorized to maintain the levees as the government is suppose to maintain the levees. Dr. Gerald E. Galloway Jr. who was a former brigadier general “with the Corps of Engineers, said in an interview that few broad changes were made once the floodwaters of 1993 receded and were forgotten.

“We told them there were going to be more floods like this,” said Dr. Galloway, now an engineering professor at the University of Maryland, “Everybody likes to go out and shake hands on the levee now and offer sandbags, but that’s not helpful. This shouldn’t have happened in the first place.” (NYTimes.com, 2008).  

So after all of this time they have yet to complete this project.  After Hurricane Katrina, Congress passed a bill that was suppose to take inventory and inspect levees, however they did not have the funding to complete the tasks. The levees that were maintained by the towns and farmers, leaked and broke.  There are also levees that others do not know where they are. 
In the 1960s, and 1970s there was calls to improve the levees however once again funding was never received to take care of these tasks
It is sad after all of this time, the government has yet to do anything this and seeing devastation like this shows that they are not managing their money properly.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/22/us/22midwest.html?pagewanted=1&ref=us