DORENA, Mo. — Crews working to rebuild the Birds Point-New Madrid Floodway levee in southeastern Missouri say if the weather cooperates, the levee could be finished by mid-February.

But for many who lived in the 35-mile floodway and farmed some of the Midwest’s richest land, having to rely on the weather for anything is painful.

“I just don’t get it,” said John Story, who lost more than 2,000 acres of crops when the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers blew three holds into the levee to ease flooding pressures upstream on Cairo, Ill. “It’s just a calamity, really. There was just no sense in what they did.”

Blowing the levee flooded virtually the entire floodway, causing an estimated $300 million in damages. Story lost his farm shop and five small homes that were home to some of his farm workers.

During the month of October, which offered mostly sunny and dry weather conditions, crews began reconstructing the levee. Corps’ officials have said it is a “temporary” fix and that the height of the levee will be rebuilt to 51 feet.

An additional $3 million allocation announced last week will allow the Corps to bump up the levee’s height to 55 feet, said Corps’ spokesman Jim Pogue.

Following a recent press conference to announce the additional $3 million in funding, Pogue said the Corps wants “to make things right … and to show people the way out of this dark situation.”

The levee’s height before parts of it were exploded was 61.5 feet, and farmers like Story want to see the Corps restore it to that height as quickly as possible.

“Are we just supposed to pray that the (Mississippi) river doesn’t flood again next spring? Somehow that just doesn’t seem to make any sense,” Story said.

Pogue said the Corps’ plan is to eventually rebuild the levee to its original height, but only when federal money becomes available. At this point in time, he said he’s not sure when that could occur.

For now, crews working to rebuild the levee need about another 80 days of good weather to complete the levee to 55 feet, Pogue said.

“We only have a few more days left like this left,” said Col. Vernie Reichling, the Corps’ Memphis District Commander. “So our focus is getting the job done to 51 feet and then our second priority is, when we get 80 good construction days, to get to 55.”

The corps pledged to work without interruption once it completes the initial temporary fix to 51 feet, which Reichling said will occur by Nov. 30.

Crews would continue working 10-12 hour days, seven days a week to get the work done as quickly as possible, he said.

Meanwhile, more than 100 farmers are part of a class-action lawsuit against the Corps, claiming the federal agency damaged their land and buildings without just compensation. That case is in its early stages.