(DOD Photo near Cairo, Illinois)
I didn’t always get the job I wanted, but I definitely did NOT get the job described in the article, “The Mississippi River Flood and the Katrina Risk,” by Peter Heller and published in Bloomberg Business Week. Colonel Edward R. Fleming of the Army Corps of Engineers has that job. In reading the article, he has his hands full, but he and his team seem to be doing a great job, despite the river cresting at levels exceeding even the great flood of 1927. The Corps has had to blast holes in levies along the Mississippi River to save coastal towns, but devastating thousands of acres of farmland (and smaller towns) in the process. No matter how you slice it, there have been – and will continue to be – tough and controversial decisions that need to be made as long as the Mississippi continues to threaten or break all-time records. Hang in there, Colonel.
And thank you, Mr. Detailer.
