OMAHA, Neb. (WOWT) -- Ten months deep into the flood damage of 2019, Army Corps of Engineers teams continue patching together a broken flood protection system.

The Omaha District has closed two outlet breaches on the Missouri River Levee System L-575 - the fourth and fifth such closures.

The latest work provides an initial level of flood risk management to the area behind this downstream portion of the levee. Crews will now continue repairs on these breach locations while also focusing on the two remaining outlet breaches.

Corina Zhang, L-575 project resident engineer, said, The team remains focused on repairing the substantial damages caused by the 2019 flooding to the L-575 levee system, as we understand how important rehabilitating this levee as soon as possible is to the communities and landowners behind the levee."

The work continues as the weather allows.

The Omaha District has also awarded a $6.5 million construction contract to Youngs General Contracting, Inc. of Poplar Bluff, Missouri. That contract will repair the L-561 Nishnabotna and High Creek Levee system, which is a left bank tributary levee system.

This is the ninth contract awarded to fully repair a tributary levee system and the first to be awarded in the state of Missouri by the Omaha District.

Brent Cossette, Project Manager for the Omaha District Systems Restoration Team, said, While a lot of the focus has been on the Missouri River Levee Systems, we also continue to have teams committed to restoring the smaller tributary levee systems as quickly as possible. We understand that these levee systems are vital to small communities and farmers across the Omaha Districts area of responsibility.

There are more than 500 miles of levees on the Missouri, Platte and Elkhorn rivers, and tributaries that experienced significant flood damage since March 2019.

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HEARTLAND FLOOD: Long process of levee repair marks progress - WOWT