Coalition to Support Repair of Southwestern Illinois Levees

A coalition of business and civic groups, community leaders and residents is being formed to find ways to raise money and buy time to repair southwestern Illinois’ Mississippi River levees.

The St. Louis Metro East Levee Issues Alliance’s formation comes as the federal government is considering whether to classify the levees as incapable of handling a flood so big that it has only a 1 percent chance of happening any given year. It is FEMA’s threshold for classifying an area a high-risk flood area.

Reclassifying the region as a high-risk flood area could raise flood insurance rates for thousands of homes and businesses.

The group will be administered by the Leadership Council Southwestern Illinois, an economic-development corporation.