CAIRO, Ill. (AP) — The U.S. Supreme Court has refused to halt a plan by the Army Corps of Engineers to blast open a levee to relieve the rain-swollen Mississippi River.
Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito did not comment Sunday night in denying Missouri’s request to block the corps’ plan. Alito handles emergency requests from Missouri and other states in the 8th Circuit in the Midwest.
Maj. Gen. Michael Walsh says a decision has not yet been made on whether to breech the levee. But he’s ordered field crews to move barges to the Missouri side of the river and begin loading pipes in the levee with explosives in anticipation of blowing up a two-mile section just downriver from Cairo (KAY’-roh), Ill. .
