By BRENT MARTIN
St. Joseph Post
Emergency management officials continue to closely watch the Missouri River, even as the level of the Missouri dipped a little over the weekend.
The National Weather Service reports the Missouri River at St. Joseph stood at 25.64 feet at 6:30 Sunday evening. The Missouri River level dropped a bit this weekend and now is heading toward major flood stage with NWS expecting the Missouri to crest late Wednesday at 28.1 feet, a full foot lower than earlier projections and below the record crest of 32.1 feet reached in 1993. The Missouri River rose to just under 30 feet at St. Joseph in 2011.
Gov. Mike Parson, who took a helicopter tour of flooding in northwest Missouri Friday, is hesitant to compare this year with 2011.
“I don’t know that we’re comparing it there, but we’re all concerned about is it going to be like 2011 or not? I don’t think any of us know this yet,” Parson tells reporters.
Still, Parson says officials are using the hard-earned experience of 2011 to make sure they can respond to whatever happens this year.
“We’ve been preparing for this,” Parson says. “Everybody’s trying to make sure we dot all the i’s and cross all the t’s and make sure we’re ready for this as best we can be.”
The state closed Interstate 29 at Rock Port Friday as floodwaters covered the interstate across the state line in Iowa. Missouri Department of Transportation officials have been directing traffic to Interstate 35, north to I-80, back across to I-29. High water has closed a number of area roads. Highway 136, which carries traffic from northwest Missouri to Brownville, Nebraska, has been closed.
Atchison County Emergency Management Director Rhonda Wiley says she observed many stressed levees during a helicopter tour of flooding with Gov. Parson.
“I believe that we saw some areas that were probably true breaches in Holt County,” Wiley says. “Then we saw some toppage up in Atchison County as well. And, so, I believe there are some areas that have already breached.”
Wiley says fewer than 100 homes had been flooded in Atchison County with all by two families seeking shelter with relatives or friends.
The threat of flooding at Rosecrans Memorial Airport has prompted the 139th Airlift Wing to take precautions. Vice Commander of the 139th, John Clark, says the C-130s at Rosecrans have been moved to higher ground.
“Mainly, right now, what we want to say is that we are still fully mission capable and engaged for you sir and for the nation as a whole and we’ll continue to remain at that level of readiness,” Clarks tells Gov. Parson.
A move by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers had taken pressure off the Missouri River. The Corps reports it has reduced releases from the Gavins Point Dam, upstream at Yankton, South Dakota. The Corps had increased water releases from Gavins Point from 50,000 cubic feet per second to 90,000 to relieve widespread flooding in Nebraska. It announce over the weekend, it is reducing releases to 73,000 cfs with the intention of lowering releases to 20,000.