By BRENT MARTIN
St. Joseph Post
Congressman Sam Graves expresses frustration with his meetings with U.S. Army Corps of Engineers officials in wake of historic flooding in northwest Missouri.
Graves says Corps officials stick to a familiar theme when explaining what went wrong that led to the widespread flooding which covered farmland, destroyed homes, and heavily damaged communities in his district.
“It’s like every flood. It’s the same thing, over and over and over again,” Graves tells reporters after hosting a roundtable discussion in St. Joseph. “It’s not having enough capacity above the dams to be able to hold that water back while if we have an incident like we had south of the dams, there’s not enough capacity to be able to keep that water up north or to being able to handle the snow melt that’s coming down.”
Graves faults how the Corps of Engineers managed the Missouri River during his discussion with officials from northwest Missouri. Graves contends the Corps should have better prepared for the heavy influx of excess water in March by releasing more water from the six upstream dams in December and January.
He worries whether communities can recover and whether farmers can absorb the losses.
“Are those communities going to be able to come back? Again, are these farmers?” Graves asks. “We have a lot of farmers out there that plan for this, but we have a lot of farmers out there, too, particularly those who are just getting started that don’t have the capacity to be able to absorb an entire year with no income and they can’t put a crop in, because they’re still exposed as a result of the levee breaches.”
Whether compensation for the losses is coming their way remains up in the air.
A disaster aid package, which includes money to offset losses from the flood, has stalled in Congress. Graves is confident federal aid will be approved at some point, but Graves says the package will have to be handled differently than in the past.
“We’re waiting on the Senate. It has failed twice (in the Senate),” Graves says, “So, now the House, we’re going to do a package on our side. We’re going to basically take some of the Senate language and we’re going to send it back over to the Senate.”
Graves says the package will pass once Congress agrees on how much more money will be allocated to help Puerto Rico in its ongoing recovery efforts in wake of Hurricane Maria which struck in 2017.
If approved, federal funds could be freed for farmers unable to plant this year as well as money to offset the loss of stored grain ruined by floodwaters. Money could also be made available for homeowners and communities impacted by the flood.