Public safety is the priority of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ Levee Safety Program. Levees provide tremendous benefits to communities and contributed to preventing more than $120 billion of damages nationally in 2011. Program staff works to better understand, manage and reduce the flood risks associated with levees.
At Portland District, we manage many activities to assess the reliability and capability of levees within District boundaries. We recommend courses of action to help ensure that levee systems do not present unacceptable risks to the public, property and environment. We also work to inform stakeholders that levees and levee systems do not remove all risks from flooding. Levee safety and communicating risk is a shared responsibility among federal, state, local and private partners. This is extremely important so that individuals can participate in public safety decisions. Overall, the Corps’ levee safety program provides continuous feedback about levee systems through rigorous inspections and assessments.