By Jacque Day
Smithland, Ky. – Workers in Livingston County are fighting to keep the levee intact as water continues to rise around Smithland and its surrounding communities. Emergency Management Director David Koon says rising waters threatened to close Route 60. But they were able to raise the roadway by piling millings mixed with asphalt about a mile east of the Tennessee River Bridge. Koon says that's one of multiple issues. Water is pushing on the soft sediment under the levee. "The levee's holding. The water is going under the levee causing sand boils, and that's what we're fighting with everything we've got." Sand boils are also a major concern in Cairo, Illinois. They occur when water under pressure wells up through a bed of sand. So far Smithland workers have been able to keep the sand boils at bay by piling sandbags in affected areas. Koon says at present, all of lower Smithland is evacuated. Though they can get in and out, he says, once the water rises a few more feet, they won't have access.