The federal levee record, in plain language
Find the levee that protects your area.
The US Army Corps of Engineers records every levee system it knows about, along with its condition, its federal accreditation status and the population living behind it. That record is public and close to unreadable. This is the same data, written out.
Compiled from the USACE National Levee Database. Last refreshed 2026-09-10. Figures are counted only across the systems that publish them, so a total is never inflated by treating a missing value as zero.
Systems with the most people behind them
7,626 in the index| System | Location | Accreditation | People | Structures | Length |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| New Orleans East Bank | New Orleans, Orleans Parish, Louisiana | Accredited | 849,393 | 323,422 | 99.5 miles |
| Mississippi River East Bank | Sorrento, Ascension Parish, Louisiana | Accredited | 429,480 | 178,846 | 105.6 miles |
| MA 09 - City of Sacramento - American R left bank | Sacramento, Sacramento County, California | Accredited | 384,056 | 87,713 | 35.4 miles |
| Upper Las Vegas Wash Interception Berm | Las Vegas, Clark County, Nevada | Accredited | 335,342 | 102,308 | 1.73 miles |
| Lower Rio Grande Levee System | Bluetown, Cameron County, Texas | Accredited | 288,260 | 90,122 | 129.1 miles |
| Los Angeles River/Rio Hondo Diversion 1 | Paramount, Los Angeles County, California | Provisionally Accredited Levee (PAL) System | 272,000 | 56,146 | 19.8 miles |
| Mississippi River West Bank - Above Old River | Simmesport, Concordia Parish, Louisiana | Accredited | 269,628 | 148,852 | 16.1 miles |
| New Orleans West Bank | Marrero, Jefferson Parish, Louisiana | Accredited | 248,334 | 90,436 | 89.1 miles |
| Mississippi River West Bank - Below Morganza | Crescent, Iberville Parish, Louisiana | Accredited | 243,744 | 129,113 | 156.1 miles |
| AR-LA MS River | Pioneer, West Carroll Parish, Louisiana | Provisionally Accredited Levee (PAL) System | 227,280 | 110,450 | 359.4 miles |
| Louisville Metro Levee System | Louisville/Jefferson County metro government (balance), Jefferson County, Kentucky | Accredited | 200,934 | 89,786 | 21.0 miles |
| Alameda Creek - LB | Fremont, Alameda County, California | Non-Accredited | 199,529 | 54,338 | 8.07 miles |
Ordered by the population figure USACE publishes for each system. This is not a ranking of risk, and no system on this page is described as safe or unsafe. How the figure is counted.
Before you read a rating
Accreditation is not a safety score
A FEMA accreditation status describes a levee system measured against a design flood event. It is not a statement about whether a particular house will flood, and a non-accredited system is not the same thing as a failing one. What it does mean.
An absent figure is not a zero
Around half the fields on a given system are unpopulated in the federal record. Where USACE has not published a value, this site says so rather than printing a zero or estimating one. How the data is handled.