Hamburg gets hard-fought approval to raise flood levee

HAMBURG, Iowa (AP) — The southwestern Iowa town of Hamburg has finally gotten federal approval to raise its flood protection levee. 

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers on Wednesday announced it had approved the city’s plan to raise the levee by about 8 feet. 

The decision comes nearly 10 years after the Corps scrambled to help the town of about 1,200 temporarily raise the levee, which saved it from devastating floods that year. But once the floodwaters subsided, the Corps insisted that the work be undone, and the town was later inundated by historic flooding in 2019. 

Hamburg will provide between $7 million and $8 million to raise the levee.