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Levees.org’s newly-released levee statistics and the positive correlation of levees to the U.S. economy is enjoying nationwide circulation.

The story appeared today in Homeland Security’s Newswire Service. And yesterday, it was sent to the 150,000 members of the American Society of Civil Engineers.

These are the people who need to understand that levees, and their value, are not unique to the New Orleans region.

As reported by Mark Schleifstein of the New Orleans Times Picayune, the new data shows that total productivity and personal incomes are greater and poverty is less in the U.S. counties with levees.

 It seems that levees more than pay for themselves when their cost is compared to the investment they protect.

This new information is over a year in the making. After a 6-month wait to acquire the data from FEMA, Levees.org commissioned geographer Ezra Boyd to analyze the data and determine if there is a correlation between levees and the populations they protect. The results were statistically significant and can be found here.