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Landowners file lawsuit over Missouri River floods

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — A group of farmers and business owners is suing the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, claiming the agency mismanaged the Missouri River since 2006 and contributed to major flooding in five states.

The lawsuit filed Wednesday claims some plaintiffs experienced extensive damage — particularly during the extended 2011 flooding that devastated hundreds of thousands of acres of mostly farmland in South Dakota, Nebraska, Iowa, Kansas and Missouri.

Corps officials did not immediately respond to a message Wednesday morning.

Outside experts who reviewed the 2011 flooding said the Corps did the best it could in dealing with record amounts of water that flowed into the 2,341-mile-long river after unusually heavy spring rains in Montana and North Dakota.

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