WASHINGTON, D.C. — U.S. Army Corps of Engineers officials said they will use some of an additional $800 million allocated for 2012 for flood control improvements toward the full repair of the Birds Point-New Madrid levee.

News of the additional money, signed by President Barack Obama late last month, was applauded by farmers in one of the hardest-hit areas in southeastern Missouri.

The calendar year 2011 was the worst on record for flood damage throughout the country, with the Midwest generally getting hardest-hit. Some of the most extensive damage occurred with Missouri’s Bootheel, where some 130,000 acres of prime farmland was flooded after the Corps won a legal battle to blow up part of the Birds Point levee.

It was a controversial move, and one that relieved extreme pressure on the upriver town of Cairo, Ill. Missouri state officials sued to block the intentional levee breach, and they have fought hard since to see the Corps rebuild Birds Point levee to its original height of 62.5 feet.

Estimates of crop losses alone were pegged at about $65 million; millions more in damages were sustained to some 100 homes and farm buildings, equipment and other items. More than 100 farmers in the area have a class action lawsuit pending against the federal government.

“In my mind, and for hundreds of Missourians, the situation there is still an emergency which threatens livelihoods and private property,” said U.S. Rep. Jo Ann Emerson (R-Mo.), who pushed for additional Corps funding. “The Corps knows what must be done, and the funding in this measure should allow them to pursue the most aggressive timeline possible in the restoration of pre-flood protections.”

The Corps so far has spent about $25 million to rebuild the levee to a height of 55 feet in the three spots it breached. Work was stopped late last month for the winter and is expected to resume early this spring.

Corps’ spokesman Bob Anderson said it will take at least another $20 million to finish work on the levee and to bring it up to the pre-blast height of 62.5 feet.

In announcing the additional funding, U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack said the levee rebuild will be the Corps’ top priority in a long list of repairs needed across the country. Natural disasters overall in 2011 affected some 55 million acres throughout the United States, he said.

“There have been years that have had more intensive damage in a particular geographic area, but what’s unique about last year is that virtually every part of the country was affected,” Vilsack said.

Critical of the Corps’ actions from the beginning, Mississippi County, Mo., Commissioner Carlin Bennett said he is pleased about the funding news.

“Now (the Corps) can’t run around saying they’re not funded yet,” Bennett said.

He and other Bootheel officials are trying to persuade the Corps to let a swollen Mississippi River overtop the levee in the future rather than exploding parts of it to relieve pressure.

“We’re in favor of a solution that doesn’t involve blowing the heck out of the levees, which then blows the heck out of everything,” he said.