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June 27th, 2008
Muskrats + showers = levee breach
Posted: 12:33 PM ET

(CNN) — The work of muskrats, burrowing for either food or shelter, may have been a factor in a breach of the Pin Oak Levee, the last barrier standing between floodwater and Lincoln County, Missouri, Friday morning.

Residents of the county had been anxiously waiting for the Mississippi River to crest, which was scheduled to happen Saturday afternoon at a height about half a foot above the water level Wednesday. But late night showers added pressure and the levee broke around 5:30 a.m.

The Army Corps of Engineers blamed the structural collapse on pockets dug in the levee walls by muskrats. These pockets had led to “down slides” that had occurred in two 100-foot-sections of the levee over the past several days. Down slides occur when portions of the earthen levee shift because of water seeping through.