By BRENT MARTIN

St. Joseph Post

An attempt to quickly approve disaster assistance for victims of the Missouri River flooding has stalled in Congress after a partisan fight broke out over hurricane recovery assistance to Puerto Rico.

US Senator Roy Blunt says he’s frustrated, but likely not as frustrated as others in Congress.

“We’re probably not in as difficult a position as states that had a disaster late last year or even earlier this year,” Blunt tells St. Joseph Post. “We’re going to get in the disaster package when there is one. I wish we were in it already, but there’s a chance by the time we get in that package we’ll have a greater sense of the actual damage done.”

Blunt says damage assessment in Missouri lags behind assessments completed in Nebraska and Iowa.

Some Democrats in the Senate have held up passage of disaster assistance, complaining the federal government hasn’t done enough to help Puerto Rico fully recover from Hurricane Maria in 2017. Blunt suggests some of those Senate Democrats running for president are angling to look good to certain voting blocks in their pursuit of the White House.

Congress is struggling to decide how much and what kind of assistance it should provide farmers affected by flooding this year.

Blunt says he and other farm state senators are pushing to amend the proposed disaster assistance package to cover the loss of stored grain.

“That’s not really covered under any package and you and I have seen all those pictures and have probably both seen in person these grain bins that were affected by the flood and you have tens of thousands of dollars’ worth of grain lost, sometimes in just one bin,” according to Blunt.

Blunt does expect Congress to approve disaster aid, eventually.

“There will be a disaster aid bill and, hopefully, we’ll get all the politics rung out of this and get down to the real need that people expect the government to be able to respond to.”

 

 

 

By BRENT MARTIN

St. Joseph Post

A state senator representing northwest Missouri will be part of a panel reviewing whether a “hyperloop” between Kansas City and St. Louis is feasible.

Senator Tony Luetkemeyer of Parkville has been appointed to serve on the Blue Ribbon Panel on Hyperloop.

“This is new, cutting-edge technology,” Luetkemeyer tells St. Joseph Post. “Missouri, if we were to get the project, would be the first state in the country to have this type of technology deployed. And so, I’m excited to get to explore the issue further and to be part of that process.”

The so-called hyperloop is a different type of transportation. Passengers would ride in pods enclosed in a tube levitating along a magnetically-charged rail at amazing speeds along I-70, perhaps as fast as 700 miles an hour.

The company Virgin Hyperloop One is testing the technology in Nevada.

Missouri is being considered, because I-70 between Kansas City and St. Louis is relatively flat and the I-70 corridor has enough right of way access to build the hyperloop.

Several questions must be answered before Luetkemeyer gives his endorsement, with the state senator stating safety is his top concern, closely followed by security. He says a hyperloop would immediately become a prime target for terrorists.

Also, Luetkemeyer wants to explore the economic feasibility of the proposal by Virgin Hyperloop One.

“What is it that they are wanting in order to come to Missouri?” Luetkemeyer asks. “Will there be a sufficient economic benefit to the state to justify any types of incentive programs that they might need in order to pick Missouri?”

Luetkemeyer cautions against dismissing the concept as science fiction.

“You think back in the mid-1960s, we were sending a man to the moon,” Luetkemeyer points out. “The notion that we went from where we were technologically to having a man on the moon in a relatively short period of time, that seemed very fanciful and something that was out of fantasy, but we obviously made that a reality.”

 

 

By BRENT MARTIN

St. Joseph Post

Tarkio College, closed since 1992, hopes to re-emerge; this time as a technical college.

A long process to revive the college in extreme northwest Missouri seems to be moving closer to becoming reality after the Tarkio College Alumni Association bought the campus from Heartland Educational Institute and then transferred it to Tarkio College Corporation.

Tarkio College Interim President John Davis says the college initially sought state approval for a four-year liberal arts school.

“And, what they discovered was that there really was not a need for another four-year institution, but rather there was an extremely high need for a career and technical type program in our area,” Davis tells St. Joseph Post.

An application is pending before the Missouri Department of Higher Education. After the department suggested the different approach, the application was modified and Tarkio College re-applied as a career and technical school, offering courses in plumbing, wind energy, and computer technology. Davis says the college eventually hopes to expand its offerings, granting associate degrees in a number of fields.

The Tarkio College Alumni Association has been working for years to bring the college back to life. It finally secured enough money to buy the campus, at least most of the campus, from Heartland. The fieldhouse has been donated to the local high school. The alumni association transferred ownership to Tarkio College Corporation March 7th, which Davis says is more than a technical move. He says the transfer of ownership had to be taken for the college to apply for grants.

“The other issue, of course, would be just donors who would have an interest such as area industries or alumni. They would also have some concerns about donating to repair buildings that the institution doesn’t actually own,” according to Davis.

Davis says several buildings need repair.

Tarkio asked for permission from state officials to open in June, but that likely will not happen.

“We feel pretty confident that, at the latest, we would be able to do that in the fall, providing that we get certification from them.”

Tarkio College has a 60-acre campus and considers a 60-mile radius of Tarkio as its service area. Tarkio returned a modified application to the Department of Higher Education March 30^th and received a response from the state that the official review of the application began April 2^nd.

Tarkio College was founded in 1883. It declared bankruptcy and closed in 1992.

 

By BRENT MARTIN

St. Joseph Post

Repair of northwest Missouri roads and bridges damaged by floodwaters is underway, where possible.

Missouri Department of Transportation Area Engineer Adam Watson says floodwaters haven’t receded enough in some spots to observe the damage. He says it appears the bridges over the Missouri River, US 159 at Rulo, Nebraska and US 136 at Brownville, Nebraska, have held up under the strain.

But Watson can’t say the same thing for the road leading to the Rulo bridge.

“The bridge is standing fine. It’s the approach pavement, the slabs of concrete in front of it; there’s nothing underneath those slabs of concrete,” Watson tells St. Joseph Post. “You can look through where there should be roadway and, you’re like, ooh yeah, that’s just a hole.”

Watson says bridges over Missouri River tributaries didn’t fare as well. Some are heavily damaged.

He says it is hard to estimate the damage at this point, but gives a preliminary repair price tag totaling in the tens of millions of dollars.

Watson says what damage MoDOT crews have observed so far isn’t any greater than during past floods, but admits even though the Missouri River has receded, floodwaters still hamper assessments.

“What was very frustrating is, and to some extent still is, the water level stays high for so long that we can’t get in and see it,” according to Watson. “So, I’ll be honest, the crews have been biting at the bit to see how much damage and how much debris they’re going to have to clean prior to even getting some routes open.”

Watson says assessment will continue as quickly as possible.

“So, we’re getting out now to look at them and we’ll continue it and as the water recedes, we’ll do more. The real question is how fast will the water recede?” Watson says, adding if the water rises again, it will obviously hamper recovery efforts.

Watson says the top priority of MoDOT now is to re-open roads to traffic, whether flood damage is fully repaired or not.

Watson says MoDOT crews need one thing from the public.

“Patience with us. We’ll get fixed as much as we can, get everything back open as soon as we can, but, some patience.”

By BRENT MARTIN

St. Joseph Post

Highway crews are working to restore both lanes of Highway 59 in southern Buchanan County, but I-29 into Iowa will likely be closed for quite some time.

Missouri Department of Transportation Area Engineer Adam Watson says crews created a temporary berm along Highway 59 to force floodwaters off one lane to re-open the route into Atchison, Kansas.

“We wouldn’t open the road with water being over it. We don’t like for motorists not to be able to see what they’re driving through. We don’t like the potential for damage underneath the water we can’t see,” Watson tells St. Joseph Post. “Typically, even when its raining really hard and the road is flooding, we don’t like for motorists to drive through running water or drive through a road covered with water.”

Watson says MoDOT hopes to open both lanes soon, perhaps even as early as today, but worries that spring rains could create renewed flooding later.

Interstate 29 across the state line into Iowa will likely stay closed well into May, perhaps even into June.

Watson says I-29 suffered extensive damage in Iowa during the Missouri River flooding. Once floodwaters recede, repairs will need to be made to re-open the interstate.

Watson says MoDOT is allowing local traffic to travel I-29 in northern Missouri.

“What we don’t want is through traffic or traffic intending to go further north into the Midwest to use I-29, because there is no capacity to accept traffic into Iowa,” Watson says. “There is just nothing over across the (state) line.”

I-29 remains closed to through traffic at Highway 71 north of St. Joseph.

MoDOT is advising traffic wishing to travel north on I-29 to drive east to Interstate 35 and take it to I-80, back across to I-29.

 

By BRENT MARTIN

St. Joseph Post

U.S. Sen. Roy Blunt says the flooding in northwest Missouri this year should prompt the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to re-think how it manages the Missouri River.

The Missouri and its tributaries overflowed their banks and swamped vast amounts of farmland and a number of cities in Missouri, Nebraska, Iowa, and Kansas.

Blunt says the adjustments to the master manual which guides management of the Missouri made in 2004 didn’t go far enough to emphasize flood protection. He wishes the Corps had kept more water in the six upstream reservoirs this winter.

“But, they didn’t. And, again, I think there were some extreme circumstances here that we haven’t seen before, but still you would think that we would be able to be anticipating what’s going to happen here in the next weeks as the snow begins to melt and the spring rains come,” Blunt tells the St. Joseph Post. “Neither of these should be big surprises.”

Blunt says the destruction this year seems similar to that of 2011 with a big exception. A dam in northern Nebraska failed, spilling a huge amount of water into the Platte River system which fed the Missouri River system downstream. The Corps, responding to massive flooding in Nebraska, attempted to ease flooding there by opening the gates at the Gavins Point Dam at Yankton, South Dakota, sending huge amounts of water into an already swollen Missouri River.

Blunt is quick to point out that Army Corps of Engineers officials in Omaha and Kansas City simply follow the master manual and shouldn’t be blamed. He says top Corps officials will need to take a long, hard look at its Missouri River master manual in wake of this flood and place more emphasis on flood control, navigation, and drinking water with less concern for environmental protection.

The Corps’ top priority now, according to Blunt, should be to repair the 50+ levees broken over a 350-mile stretch of the Missouri River without interference from Washington, D.C.

Congress should approve disaster assistance for communities and farmers impacted by the flood, according to Blunt. Blunt says the help will be included in the next disaster aid package approved by Congress.

“Which qualifies our state along with Kansas and Iowa and Nebraska for the parts of that appropriated money that they would qualify for,” Blunt says. “And, as we know more later, we may have to put more money in those categories to fully take care of what happened in our four states. But they’ll be included in the next bill we pass or we won’t pass a next bill.”

Blunt believes Congress will also approve agricultural disaster aid through a separate package.

There is a sense of urgency, according to Blunt, as communities and farmland have become vulnerable to northern snowmelt and spring rains entering the system.

“Just the normal spring water, plus the normal spring flooding, if it doesn’t get worse than that, will be harder to deal with this year than it would be if we hadn’t had this unique Platte River-related disaster,” according to Blunt.