Residents of some private developments near Yankton are wondering why government agencies helped some upscale South Dakota communities build levees to protect against rising water from the Missouri River, but their neighborhoods got little or no help.
Gov. Dennis Daugaard says allegations that only rich neighborhoods got levees are false. He says some areas left unprotected were upscale neighborhoods.
The governor says the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers built levees in Pierre, Fort Pierre and Dakota Dunes to protect public infrastructure such as roads, government buildings and electrical, water and sewer systems.
He says some cities and homeowners associations decided to spend their own money to build additional levees to protect residential areas.
A corps official says federal law allows the agency to only build levees to protect public infrastructure.