Another levee in Northwest Missouri has been compromised, and parts of the city of Hamburg, Iowa are being evacuated because of floodwaters.
Emergency officials and volunteers in Atchison County, Missouri worked through the weekend to prevent rising Missouri River waters from compromising levees, roads and other infrastructure.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers announced that a partial levee breach occurred Sunday morning on Missouri River levee L-575, near Hamburg. Early assessments determined this was the second partial breach to the levee. Officials warn the levee is likely to fully breach the as water levels continue to rise.
“The levee has a partial breach in which the levee collapsed on itself approximately 10-15 feet in width,” said Kim Thomas, Chief of the Emergency Management Office here. “All personnel on-site were moved off-site as a safety precaution. Additionally we strongly encourage everyone to avoid this potentially dangerous area.”
The Corps is working closely with Iowa and Missouri Emergency Management Agencies, as well as the County Emergency Managers, the National Weather Service and Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) Region VII to ensure the safety of all in these areas.
Levees can be breeched for a variety of reasons and, at this point, it is too early to determine what the cause or causes of these breaches may have been, said Thomas.
The levee breach follows weeks of high flows and increasing releases from the main stem dams in Montana and the Dakotas. The Corps continues to aggressively monitor and evaluate the inundation areas.
“Through monitoring, we’ve also identified a concern with levee L-550 near Brownville, Nebraska, and are working with the local sponsor to develop a solution for that as well,” said Thomas.
As a temporary measure to reinforce the levee to delay a full breach, the Iowa National Guard is dropping thousands of pounds of large sandbags to help fill the breaches.
Levee L575 is located at River Mile 552.5 in Atchison County, Missouri.
A dispatcher in Fremont County, Iowa says it is not a severe breach, but it could cause secondary problems due to erosion. The dispatcher said people are being evacuated from the south end of Hamburg, Iowa. She said it was a mandatory evacuation.
I-29 remains open in Iowa, but the dispatcher pointed out there is a flood warning from exit one to exit ten on the interstate in southwest Iowa.
Atchison County Emergency Management has a page on Facebook, in which Director Rhonda Wiley offers the following regarding some misinformation that was released about another levee in her county: There IS a levee compromise 1.5 miles south of Iowa line. It is a trickle only and NOT a flash flood situation at this time. WATER IS NOT FLOWING OVER I-29! and none of the leadership in this county and Fremont County are responsible for the bad info. It was put out by another source! At this time it is still a voluntary evacuation in Atchison County.
Wiley posted this video on Facebook. It shows a “sand boil” 30 yards from the L550 levee. When a sand boil occurs, water percolates underneath a levee, and can cause erosion and damage from underneath.
Wiley says crews are building a new levee, and preparing to brace it with sandbags to protect the Rock Port drinking water plant near I-29 and US-136 highways.
Wiley says that so far no one has asked for shelter in the center set up for evacuees last week.
Here is a wider angle photograph of the water trickling past the L550 levee south of US-136. This was about 30 yards from the base of the levee.
