Hundreds of flood-control systems around the country may fail and endanger people and property, the Army Corps of Engineers has found as it conducts its first nationwide inventory of levees.

Of the 2,487 structures reviewed, the agency had rated 1,451 of them. Of those, 326 were deemed unacceptable and in need of repair. Another 1,004 required correcting, and 121 were found to be acceptable.

The problems range from decayed pipes and pumping stations to houses built too close to the systems.

It is up to local governments to upgrade levee systems, but that could cost hundreds of thousands -- or, in some cases, millions -- of dollars.

"It's just not right to tell a little town like this to spend millions of dollars that we can't raise," said Judy Askew, mayor of Brookport, Ill., a town with a population of 1,000 on the banks of the Ohio River.

Some officials say the federal agency is exaggerating dangers. And some of the deficiencies had been approved or not objected to by the federal government (Flesher/Burdeau, Associated Press, Jan. 17). -- JE