The small western Iowa town of Hamburg on the Missouri River has lost its bid to keep an earthen levee erected in 2011 to save the town from the river's floodwaters.
The city had needed to raise nearly $5 million to keep the top eight feet of the levee, which was raised to 19 feet from its original 11 feet. The money would have been used to bring the raised part of the levee within federal regulations. Mayor Cathy Crain even created an Internet site that included a video of townspeople dancing to a revamped version of Credence Clearwater Revival's "Proud Mary" in the hopes of gathering donations.
But Crain says the effort raised only $52,000.
The Hamburg City Council voted Friday to take down the extended levee.
