The first half of the day was devoted to informational briefings.  Here, Dave Busse, Corps of Engineers, St. Louis District Flood Risk Management Business Line, discusses the potential impacts of flooding overcoming levees, showing how these impacts extend far beyond just the people living and working  in the protected areas.

St. Louis District, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers commander, Col. Lewis Setliff closed the conference,
telling attendees that the Corps of Engineers knew what had to be done to bring the levees
back to full levels of performance and urged all present to pull together to fix their levees.
He pledged his and the Corps’ involvement to be alongside them at every step of the way.

Congressman Jerry Costello (D-Ill 12th Dist) met with reporters before the levee summit kicked off
aboard MV Mississippi to lay out his initiative to inform Illinois citizens living behind levees from
Alton southward of risks they face from aging levee infrastructure.

Terry Reuss Fell, came from FEMA Region 5 headquarters came from Chicago to outline FEMA programs that
impact requirements for flood insurance and how areas are designated for that requirement.  She discussed
how FEMA develops maps to define areas requiring flood insurance for mortgaged property and laid out a
tentative time table and the process for redesignating areas in southwestern Illinois to reflect the condition
of urban protection levees in the region.

After the morning briefings, conferees broke up into interest groups to outline their concerns and
to start to map the road ahead to solving the challenges they face together.