The Army Corps of Engineers’ delay in activating a floodway – land designated to take on water – cost millions in damage to Cairo, Illinois.

Lisa Song
Reporter
Lisa Song reports on the environment, energy and climate change.
She joined ProPublica in 2017 after six years at InsideClimate News, where she covered climate science and environmental health. She was part of the reporting team that revealed Exxon’s shift from conducting global warming research to supporting climate denial, a series that was a finalist for the 2016 Pulitzer Prize for public service. From 2013-2014 she reported extensively on air pollution from Texas’ oil and gas boom as part of a collaboration between several newsrooms. Lisa is a co-author of “The Dilbit Disaster,” which won a Pulitzer for national reporting. She has degrees in earth science and science writing from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Flood thy neighbor: Who stays dry and who decides?
One Missouri town’s levee saga captures what’s wrong with America’s approach to controlling rivers.
Inside a secretive lobbying effort to deregulate federal levees
Nearly a year after record Midwestern floods caused $1.7 billion in damage, a secretive lobbying effort is underway to roll back flood regulations.
Towns on wrong side of an Illinois levee district are treading water
A new government model confirms Missouri residents suspicions: levees raised by neighbors have increased their flood risk.