LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) – The U.S. Army Corp of Engineers has handed control of a Hamburg levee over to local officials in the southwest Iowa town. Robert Michaels, the Omaha district chief of construction, said in an interview Tuesday that the Corps will still offer help if the hastily built levee shows any trouble signs. But Michaels said he was confident the 9,000-foot-long earthen flood barrier will hold until the Missouri River flood subsides.

Southern Hamburg had faced a significant flood threat when a levee along the Missouri River ruptured in June. Federal and local officials scrambled to build a new levee along the town’s western edge, working around the clock as the flood water neared. Water is still pressing against the 18-foot-tall levee, but has caused only minor seepage problems so far.