Des Moines–The Iowa Homeland Security and Emergency Management Division (HSEMD) is working with multiple state agencies and private companies to procure and transport materials to build up the secondary levee being constructed near Hamburg, Iowa.

The U. S. Army Corps of Engineers Omaha District notified HSEMD this afternoon that based on new data, the Missouri River levels at Hamburg will be higher. The Army Corps said the secondary levee needs to be built up an additional three feet, which will be accomplished through the placement of 14,000 linear feet, or roughly three miles, of HESCO barrier within the next 48 hours.

Ten-thousand tons of material from Hallett Materials in Shenandoah and Schildberg  Construction in Atlantic and Malvern  will be used to fill the HESCO barriers. HSEMD has procured the materials and is coordinating transportation through the Iowa Department of Transportation, the Iowa National Guard, JMT Trucking and Schildberg Construction. At its peak, transportation of these materials will involve 64 trucks, transporting more than 500 loads.

The Iowa National Guard will be placing the HESCO barriers on the levee and the Army Corps of Engineers will fill the barriers with the trucked-in materials. The Corps has been working to construct this secondary levee to protect Hamburg for the past several days.

For more information on Army Corps’ efforts on the secondary levee at Hamburg, visit the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Omaha District website at http://www.nwo.usace.army.mil/ and click on the “Spring 2011 Flood Response Information” icon.