In spring 2019, floodwaters spilled over the top of the Ditch 6 levee and submerged most of Hamburg, Iowa. There wasn't enough time to build the levee higher before the 2019 flood, like the Corps of Engineers did in 2011. Katie Peikes / Harvest Public Media Originally published on April 13, 2021 12:28 pm Levees protect people, towns, and agriculture from flooding. But two years ago, parts of the Missouri River and its tributaries reached record crests, and many levees failed. Now there’s a rare effort to build a levee higher to better defend one southwest Iowa town. Listen / Hamburg in southwest Iowa sits five miles from the Missouri River, sandwiched between it and the Nishnabotna River. Just outside of town, the Ditch 6 levee stretches for a mile and a half, shielding the town of 1,100 people from runoff from the Loess Hills to the north and east. Built in 1998, it also serves as a secondary line of defense for Hamburg’s industrial buildings and homes if a main levee along the Missouri River is overtopped or breached.