The Birds Point-New Madrid Floodway is a designed safety valve

Part of New Madrid County sits inside the Birds Point-New Madrid Floodway. This is an engineered area along the Mississippi River, running between Birds Point and New Madrid. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers built it as part of the larger river flood-control system.

Here is how it works. In a rare, extreme flood, the Corps can open the floodway and let water spread across it. That takes pressure off levees near where the Mississippi and Ohio rivers meet. It was last used this way in 2011.

So land inside the floodway carries different flood expectations than ordinary farmland. That also helps explain the many levee and drainage districts in the county.

If you are buying or farming here, find out whether a parcel is inside the floodway. Check the federal flood maps at FEMA’s Flood Map Service Center, and confirm details with the Corps’ Memphis District rather than assuming standard floodplain rules.