By BRENT MARTIN
St. Joseph Post
Missouri River levels might be falling in northwest Missouri, but Holt County continues to fight the flood.
Holt County Presiding Commissioner Tom Bullock says though the Missouri level has dropped, floodwaters are receding very slowly at Big Lake, around the town of Craig, and elsewhere. Bullock says efforts have been ongoing the past couple of days to keep floodwaters from breaching a levee protecting the town of Fortescue.
“There’s so much current going down through it. It’s already washed the Highway 159 bridge out south of town here,” Bullock says. “Just too much current, too much water.”
Bullock says the flood breached several levees in Holt County, leaving the county “fully exposed” to flooding this spring.
“When usually the river runs high anyway and we have a report from the Corps of Engineers that they’re already opening up the gates a little bit up north,” Bullock says. “That water should be getting here in about three days. So, that will come about the same time the rains are supposed to come this weekend. It just keeps people nervous all the time.”
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers increased releases from Gavins Point Dam from 50,000 cubic feet per second to 90,000 cfs on March 14th after the Spencer Dam in northern Nebraska failed, sending water from the Niobrara River into the Missouri River system. The Corps intended to bring releases down to 20,000 cfs, but stopped just short of that, reducing releases from Gavins Point to 24,000 cfs. Releases have been steadily increasing, from 27,000 cfs to a projected 36,000 cfs on Thursday.
Northwest Division Chief John Remus with the Army Corps Missouri River Management Division says the Corps is increasing the releases to prepare the upstream dam system for northern Missouri basin snowmelt. He says the system has 85% of its flood storage remaining.
The Missouri River dropped below major flood stage this morning, falling below 27 feet at St. Joseph. It crested just over 32 feet on Friday.
Bullock says floodwaters have receded enough for some residents to return to their homes in Craig and Big Lake.
An informational meeting for flood victims will be held in Rock Port Thursday. The multi-agency information meeting begins at noon at the Velma Houts Building in Rock Port. The meeting runs until 8pm. The meeting is sponsored by the Atchison-Holt Disaster Relief Committee.
For more information about the meeting, click here for the Holt County web page.