Buchanan County has closed roads five times so far this year due to high waters which is dipping into both man hours and resources.
Closing off roadways has become common practice for officials in Buchanan County. Emergency Management Director Bill Brinton said it’s unusual to have to have to close roads this much.
“The bad part about it is that the roads get flooded and then we go in and open them back up and we put new gravel on them and we take care of them and then about a week later they’re flooded again,” Brinton said.
Man hours dedicated to reopening roads is becoming a nuisance.
“They’re so busy opening the roads that are flooded that they can’t work on their plans for paving the roads that they have for the county,” Brinton said.
The total financial impact on the county’s budget from flooding is not yet known.
“I don’t know yet but if we go into working with FEMA/SEMA I will know exactly,” Brinton said.
However, disaster assistance is still up in the air. As we previously reported, the Federal Emergency Management Agency toured the county evaluating damage earlier this month.
“This is an ongoing process with FEMA and I would think based upon the severe weather that we’ve had in northwest Missouri a couple of days ago and with the weather that they’ve had down near Branson I think it looks more like it’s going to happen every day,” said Brinton.
Friday parts of Rock Creed Road, Saxton Easton Road, Mitchell Road, Kemmer Road, 112th Road off of 36 Highway and Picket Road south of 36 Highway were closed due to high waters in the Platte River.
“We know where the flooding areas are so we’ll have road closed signs at both ends of the road,” he said. “Every time we have a road closed there’s at least two signs to keep people from going either direction on the road.”
County officials are expected to evaluate the roads Monday in an attempt to once again, reopen them.
“We just ask people not to drive around our barricades and certainly don’t drive into any standing water,” Brinton said. “We just ask people to be safe and not to become victims of a water rescue or possibly even drown.”