Corps Won’t Release Data on Potential Lake Okeechobee Flooding

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The Army Corps of Engineers refuses to make public flood maps that show what will happen if the dike around Florida’s vast Lake Okeechobee is breached. The rationale: national security. The refusal comes as a new hurricane season begins and state and federal officials are scrambling to craft evacuation plans for some 60,000 people who live in the farming areas south of the lake. A state report in May said the dike is highly vulnerable to breaches caused by both hurricanes and heavy rains.