Innocent? Man serving life, after double conviction of 1993 Midwest flood. Check this out

Per wiki

During flooding on the Mississippi River in 1993, the Scotts, along with several other residents living in and around Quincy and Hannibal, spent much of mid-July reinforcing the West Quincy levee.[3] By July 16, the river had stopped rising and had dropped 46 centimetres (1.51 ft) below the levee. That night, however, the levee unexpectedly failed when the river burst through its main stem. The resulting flood inundated 14,000 acres (57 km2) on the Missouri side of the river.[5] In one incident, a barge was sucked into the levee and slammed into a gas station, causing a fire.[6]

The flood washed out all of the bridges in the area—the only links across the river for 200 miles (320 km). While no one was killed, many people on the Missouri side of the river had to drive 80 miles (130 km) to either St. Louis or Burlington, Iowa, fly, or take a ferry to get across the river for several weeks after the waters receded. One major bridge, the Bayview Bridge, was out of service for 71 days.[7] Several businesses in West Quincy were also destroyed, most of which have never returned.

Reporter Michele McCormack of WGEM-TV, the NBC affiliate in Quincy, was told by two DOT workers at the edge of the bridge that a man standing close by was first on the scene. She walked up to him and Scott volunteered to do a live interview with her and photographer Rick Junkerman.[3] Scott said that he had seen a weak spot on the levee and tried to put more sandbags along it. He then said he went for a drink, only to come back and discover the levee had let go.[5] He then helped the Coast Guard load boats into the floodwaters.[3] In a second interview with McCormack at his home which aired after his arrest, he told a similar story.