Missouri Farm Bureau president says this year’s flooding is worse than 2011 flood

By BRENT MARTIN

St. Joseph Post

Missouri Farm Bureau President Blake Hurst (right) speaks with USDA Under Secretary Bill Northey during Northey’s visit to observe northwest Missouri flooding.

Agricultural losses from this year’s flood could easily top one billion dollars, with worries that more flooding could be coming this year.

Missouri Farm Bureau President Blake Hurst says this year’s devastation is worse than the last major flood which hit northwest Missouri.

“Two thousand, eleven was an awful flood,” Hurst says. “This has been worse. And, to compound that, farmers in 2011 had several weeks’ notice that there was a chance there would be flooding, that the river is coming up.”

Hurst says floodwaters ruined last year’s crop which many farmers were storing in grain bins.

“Guys harvested their crops last year. They put the crops in the grain bin. They had planned on marketing it throughout this year,” Hurst says. “So, when they lose that grain and have their land under water, they basically lost two years of crop instead of one. So, it’s a real disaster for farmers and communities up and down the Missouri River.”

This flood has caused incredibly widespread damage, hitting Nebraska extremely hard after a northern dam on the Niobrara River broke apart and sent water cascading down into the Platte River and the Missouri River basin system.

It has damaged farmland in Nebraska, Iowa, Missouri, and Kansas.

Some cities, such as Watson in extreme northwest Missouri, got hit with flooding for the first time. The city of Hamburg in southwest Iowa took on more water than ever before.

Craig, Big Lake, and Lewis and Clark Village all suffered damage to homes.

Many residents suffering losses from this year’s flood blame the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

Hurst has heard the complaints and is hesitant to place too much blame on Corps officials in the Omaha and Kansas City districts, focusing more on the Corps officials who determine how the Missouri River will be managed through the Missouri River Master Manual.

“The Corps manages under a set of rules,” Hurst says. “As far as I know, they have followed those rules. The bigger question is are the rules, is that master manual, doing all it can do to give us the flood protection we need? And I think the answer to that question has to be, ‘No.’”

Missouri River basin flooding has destroyed more than 50 levees over a 350-mile stretch along the Missouri, leaving much farmland and many communities vulnerable to more flooding yet this year.