Floodwaters overrun levees in northwest Missouri, force MoDOT to close I-29 north of St. Joseph

By BRENT MARTIN
St. Joseph Post

Floodwaters have rolled through breaches in levees in extreme northwest Missouri, threatening two towns and forcing transportation officials to close I-29 just north of St. Joseph.

Missouri Department of Transportation Assistant Engineer Marty Liles says the Missouri River has overrun its banks, sending floodwaters very close to two northwest Missouri cities.

“So, right now, the community of Craig unfortunately is really doing a bunch of levee work and sandbagging to try and protect their communities. Watson is an area that my understanding is that they never really have been impacted with floodwaters and now they actually for the first time have been impacted with floodwaters,” Liles tells reporters during a news conference held off I-29 at the Craig intersection.

Sandbags attempt to fortify a make-shift levee protecting the heart of Craig.

MoDOT had closed I-29 at Rock Port to keep traffic from running into a flooded interstate in Iowa. Now, transportation officials have closed I-29 at the intersection with U.S. Highway 71, not allowing traffic to travel north as floodwaters roll near the interstate in northwest Missouri. So far, floodwaters have not lapped over the interstate, but Liles says they have rolled up onto the shoulder near Rock Port.

Liles says he doesn’t know how long the interstate will be closed to northbound traffic.

“I really don’t,” Liles says. “We kind of look at this on an hour-by-hour, day-by-day basis. We’ll watch this throughout the day and into the morning and see how the interstate is impacted.”

Atchison County, in extreme northwest Missouri, has seen a couple of levees fail. A breach in one levee has widened. A make-shift mud levee, fortified with sandbags, has been erected in Craig as residents attempt to keep the Missouri River from overrunning the heart of the town.

Interstate 29, empty of traffic, south of Mound City.

Liles says MoDOT understands the impact of its action.

“It’s an impact. This is an interstate that brings through traffic up into Omaha and south from Omaha and brings goods and services,” Liles says, noting truck traffic is having to drive long distances on alternate routes to deliver their goods.

MoDOT is advising travelers to take I-35 north to I-80 west to get around the flooding and get back on I-29 north.

The Missouri River is at 27 feet at St. Joseph. The National Weather Service forecasts it to reach nearly 30-feet, a projection the Weather Service recently revised upward.