St. Louis District Launches ‘Love Your Levee’ Campaign

The St. Louis Engineer District, in partnership with the Kaskaskia Island Drainage and Levee District, launched the “Love Your Levee” campaign last month to increase public understanding of levees and flood risk across the St. Louis region.

The campaign uses the Kaskaskia Island levee system to highlight how levees help reduce flood risk for the region. Through a series of short videos, the campaign explains the purpose of levees, the importance of maintenance and stewardship and the role communities play in flood risk management.

Kaskaskia Island is one of Illinois’ most historically significant communities and was the state’s first capital. Today, its levee system remains essential to mitigating flood risks for residents, agricultural land and irreplaceable historic and cultural resources from the Mississippi River. The campaign features interviews with community members who have deep, generational ties to Kaskaskia Island. Derek Klein, a third-generation levee commissioner and lifelong Kaskaskia resident, shares firsthand insight into the responsibility of maintaining the levee system and the importance of continued vigilance. “If there was no levee, there would be nothing over here,” Klein said. “There’s so much history over here. It’s so important to keep this place alive.”

Emily Lyons, a Kaskaskia native and local historian, recalls her experience during the record-setting 1993 flood and the devastation that occurred after the levee breached, forcing her family to evacuate. Like many residents, they left without knowing what they would come home to. “Afterwards, when we walked in, I could see over the top of my two-story house,” Lyons said. “Everybody was very upset, to say the least, knowing how powerful water can be. Water was a way of life.”

The campaign uses local perspectives to show that flood risk management depends on infrastructure, preparedness and long-term stewardship. This effort encourages residents, neighboring communities and stakeholders to better understand flood risk, know their role in protecting levee infrastructure and recognize how stories like Kaskaskia’s apply to communities across the region.

While levees reduce flood risk, the Corps notes, they do not eliminate it. Informed, engaged communities are a critical part of effective flood risk management, both in Kaskaskia and in communities across the region.

The “Love Your Levee” campaign has been released on the St. Louis Engineer District’s Facebook and YouTube pages.

For more information about levees and flood risk reduction, visit the National Levee Database at https://levees.sec.usace.army.mil.