BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) -- A 9-mile levee system that protects Mandan from the Heart River might have to be raised to meet the Federal Emergency Management Agency's new standards for flood plains.
Mandan City Administrator Jim Neubauer said that a preliminary FEMA study suggests the 58-year-old levee needs to be higher. The study also says the borders of the 100-year flood plain near the Heart River need to be widened.
Discussion about the levee started after 2009 floods caused by ice jams on the Missouri and Heart rivers.
Ron Manchester of Toman Engineering, an adviser for the Lower Heart River Water Resource District, says a final FEMA study on the levee may not be done for a year or two.
