A report published in the Omaha World-Herald says the City of Hamburg will be forced to remove an additional eight-feet of dirt piled on top of a levee designed to protect the City from flooding by the Missouri River. The paper says because the City was unable to raise more than $5.5 million needed to bring the levee within federal regulations, it must remove extra dirt added to the levee. The result will be a levee reduced to its pre-2011 flood height of 11 feet, which City leaders say is not enough to protect the community from flooding.

Despite a $1 million contribution from the Iowa Economic Development Authority, and an extension by the Corps of Engineers that allowed the City to continue raising funds until March 1^st, the City of Hamburg was still $4.6 million short of the money necessary to keep the additional dirt on the L-575 levee at the beginning of the year. City officials have said removal of the levee would cost Hamburg about One-million dollars.