As releases from the Gavins Point Damn on the Missouri River will double more then ever the amount released, Governor Jay Nixon is meeting with northwest Missouri officials to pool resources and protect residents.

Governor Nixon spoke at the Remington Nature Center in St Joseph Thursday afternoon.  The Governor spent much of the day meeting with local officials to determine the impact.

The amount of water released upstream will reach 150,000 cubic feet per second by June 7th.

Several local non-federal levee’s will over-top in the region and there’s a potential two federal levee’s could over-top in northwest Missouri as well.  One of them in Holt County, the other on the Kansas side of the river in the St Joseph area pending rainfall in the next two months.

Nixon urged residents to be prepared and said all resources will be available.

“We will continue to coordinate with state, local and federal emergency management officials in every step of the process,” Nixon said.

Nixon would not comment on how the Corps of Engineers could or should have managed the river.

“We are where we are as we stand here,”  Nixon said.  “That’s a debate we will have…in the days, weeks and years to come.”

Liaison officers are already working to set up emergency management centers, including one in Holt County.  Flood waters will be at least the same level that Atchison and Holt counties dealt with last year, Nixon said.

“When you look at what we were able to accomplish last year, the locals and all of us in this together were able to keep the highway (Interstate) open, but these numbers we are looking at would appear to be higher numbers than we seen last year.”

Buchanan County Comission R.T. Turner said he is worried about the amount of time the water will be around.

“When we are talking about two months of this, that’s always a concern and we will be watching it close,” Turner said. “Our levee’s here in St Joseph, protecting the airport and south St Joseph, are going to be okay.”

Another concern to emergency officials is how rainfall the area could recieve.  If a more than average rainfall hits Northwest Missouri, the federal levee’s will overtop.

A river level of 27 feet will stop storm-water drainage out of St Joseph and could flood businesses and homes with few places to pump the water out to, Turner said.

More information updated daily online at www.mo.gov