Robert W. Johnson | May 4, 2011, 11:24 AM
Army Corp of Engineers blew a Mississippi River levy, late Monday, to prevent Cairo, Illinois from being swept off the map.
The blast leaves a two-mile hole in the levy system, and while it may save Cairo and its population of 2,831, it leaves 130,000 acres of rich Missouri farm land and nearly 100 homes under water.
The homes now sit in a 200 square-mile lake, in a basin dug following the Great Mississippi flood of 1927.
The detonation was delayed by Missouri legal filings, but went ahead as the Mississippi crested at a record 61.72 feet.
