Levees / Explained
Reading a levee record
The federal record uses precise terms that readers routinely guess wrongly. These pages explain each one in the words USACE and FEMA use, and are explicit about what the record cannot answer.
What a FEMA accreditation status actually means
Accredited, Non-Accredited and Provisionally Accredited are the three statuses you will see. None of them is a safety score, and the difference matters most for insurance.
How the population figure behind a levee is counted
The number on each system page is the population USACE records within the leveed area. It is not a casualty estimate and not everyone in it would be affected by any given flood.
Archived systems, and why they are kept separate
Some records describe systems that are no longer current. They stay on the register for reference, and they are excluded from every total on this site.
Inspection ratings and what they describe
Where an inspection rating exists it describes maintenance condition found on a specific date. Many systems have no rating published at all.
Who is responsible for a levee
Most levees are not maintained by the federal government. The sponsor named on each record is usually the body to contact.
How current the data is, and how to tell
USACE updates the register irregularly and publishes no change feed. Every page here carries the date the data was last refreshed.