It might just be one lane, but U.S. Highway 59 in southern Buchanan County has re-opened.
Highway 59 to the Amelia Earhart Bridge into Atchison, Kansas had been closed to traffic since floodwaters from the Missouri River overtopped a levee and swamped the highway March 21st.
The Missouri Department of Transportation says floodwaters still cover one lane, so temporary traffic signals have been set up to allow one lane to be open for traffic.
For updated information on flooding and restoration, click here for the MoDOT web page.
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.
Doniphan County voters gave Riverside United School District 114 officials the authority to raise money for capital improvements through a capital outlay levy.
Riverside was one of only seven of the 286 Kansas school districts that didn’t have a capital outlay mill levy. Instead, the district borrowed to make major purchases. The Kansas State Department of Education prefers districts use a capital outlay levy rather than go into debt.
On Tuesday, 332 voters voted in favor of the issue with only 238 voting against, a 58% margin of approval.
The 3.60 mill levy is expected to raise $3.6 million over the next four years.
The district has the authority to use the entire 3.60 mill levy, but it doesn’t have to. School officials say the school board will evaluate needs on a year-by-year basis.
St. Joseph School Board President Seth Wright speaks with a district supporter during the election watch party.
St. Joseph School Board President Seth Wright says voters sent a clear message with their overwhelming support of a 61-cent increase in the school levy.
“What it says to me is this community is ready to move forward,” Wright tells St. Joseph Post. “They’re ready to take a step forward. They’re ready to leave the past behind them.”
In November of 2017, voters soundly rejected a proposed tax increase of a $1.15.
This year, 7,819 voted in favor of the tax hike with 4,323 voting against, a margin of 64.4% to 35.6%.
School Superintendent Doug Van Zyl says now it’s the district’s responsibility to use the money wisely.
“And that’s what we’ve been saying from the beginning, just give us a chance, give us an opportunity to be able to show you the plan and now you have a plan in black-and-white that you can hold us accountable to,” Van Zyl tells St. Joseph Post. “And now it’s my administrative team and the board’s responsibility to stick to that and be able to move this district forward.”
Wright says the results overwhelmed him.
“My reaction is ‘wow.’ I mean, unbelievable how our community came out tonight, supporting our schools, supporting our community, supporting our teachers, our staff, and our students,” Wright says.
Van Zyl says the margin of victory really didn’t matter to him.
“To me, I’m just thankful it was one vote more than what we needed, because that’s what we needed in order for it to pass,” according to Van Zyl. “But I do think this helps send a message to our board and to our community that public schools are important and they want their students to be successful and they want this community to be successful and the margin of victory, I think, sends that message.”
There was a light turnout in Buchanan County with only 26.4% of the registered voters casting ballots at the polls.
Very light turnout today for a light General Municipal Election ballot with one high-profile item to be decided.
Buchanan County Clerk Mary Baack-Garvey predicted a 40% voter turnout, but by 3pm, polling place officials reported only a 15% turnout so far.
“It’s very low compared to what I thought it was going to be,” Baack-Garvey tells St. Joseph Post. “I was still hoping we would hit 40%. Now, it’s looking like we may not even hit 20% at this rate.”
Voters in the St. Joseph school district will decide a 61-cent tax levy increase which school officials say is necessary to attract and retain quality teachers. St. Joseph school board members will also be chosen, as well as other issues throughout the county.
Buchanan County poll workers reported slightly more than 4,000 voters cast ballots by 11 o’clock this morning, or 8.3% of the registered voters. By 3pm, 7,626 voters cast ballots, or 15.1%. Buchanan County has 50,642 registered voters.
Baack-Garvey is at a loss to explain the light turnout so far.
“The weather is great outside. Everybody has an election in the county to go vote on,” Baack-Garvey says. “I really don’t know why, maybe lack of interest or maybe people haven’t voted yet. They are still at work. So maybe there’s still hope.”
There is still time. Polls don’t close until 7 this evening.
“I highly recommend you get out there and voice your opinion on that ballot,” Baack-Garvey says. “This is your one time to have an opinion and it’s your right to vote and I wish everybody would get out there and do that.”
Riverside United School District 114 officials hope voters today give them authority to raise money for capital improvements.
The district in Elwood has placed on the ballot a 3.60 mill capital outlay levy authority.
According to the district, Riverside is one of the seven out of 286 Kansas school districts which doesn’t have a capital outlay mill levy. Instead, the district has borrowed money to pay for capital expenses, a practice the Kansas State Department of Education frowns upon.
The ballot issue would give the district authority to use the entire 3.60 mill levy, but it doesn’t have to use the entire amount. School officials say the school board will evaluate needs on a year-by-year basis.
A table issued by the Riverside district states a 3.6 mill increase would raise taxes annually by $20.77 for a home appraised at slightly more than $50,000; $41.62 for a home appraised at $100,500; and $83.56 for a home appraised at slightly more than $200,000.
Commercial property appraised at $84,380 would pay $75.96 more annually and commercial property appraised at slightly more than $250,000 would pay $226.22 more a year.
Agricultural property appraised at around $50,000 would pay $54.11 more a year and farmland appraised at a bit more than $200,000 would pay $216.54 more per year.
Remington Nature Center/Missouri Division of Tourism photo
After extensive clean-up, the Remington Nature Center re-opened Monday under normal hours of operation.
Flooding from the rise of the Missouri River closed the center for the past two weeks.
Even as the floodwaters receded, debris remained. Crews worked both outside and inside the center to prepare it to re-open to the public. It is operating under its normal business day of 10am to 5pm.
A main thoroughfare in Hamburg, submerged in floodwaters.
Missouri River floodwaters are receding slowly from the small southwest Iowa town of Hamburg and a former mayor doesn’t expect everyone to return.
Terry Holliman owns the NAPA Auto Store, flooded when the Missouri River broke through the Hamburg levee March 18th and inundated about two-thirds of the city.
“It’s a big financial loss for most people that can least afford it,” Holliman tells St. Joseph Post.
Holliman says the poorest residents took the brunt of this flood.
“The lower areas are the lower income families, the ones that can least afford a loss,” Holliman says, surveying the damage, adding, “It’s going to be hard on everybody.”
Levees held in the past, keeping the flooded Missouri River at bay.
Not this year.
Holliman estimates the floodwaters rose to a crest two feet higher than in 2011. The levee couldn’t hold back the flood. It breached around three in the morning March 18th, prompting officials to go door-to-door, knocking on doors, ordering people to leave their homes. At best, residents had eight hours to evacuate, according to Holliman.
Holliman says while the long recovery process is underway, not everyone who called Hamburg home plans to pick up where they were before the levee breached.
“So, we have a lot of recovery, a lot of rebuild (ahead). A lot of people will simply not come back to town, because of the loss of homes,” Holliman says. “We’ll probably lose, easily, 200 people I would say.”
Hamburg is a city with a population of slightly more than one thousand.
As for the attitude toward the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Holliman says Hamburg residents have believed for some time the Corps has failed to manage the Missouri to prevent flooding.
“The dams and the levees were built in the 50s for flood protection. They’ve now switched that. They no longer are about flood protection, they’re about environmental and recreational,” according to Holliman. “They sat there during the winter with their dams full, knowing they’re going to have runoff from snowmelt and no place to put it, except down the river.”
Congressional members have made the same complaint. Corps officials in Omaha and Kansas City say the management of the Missouri River system with its six upstream dams has changed a bit since widespread flooding, notably the devastating 1993 flood. Still, some in Congress complain the Corps doesn’t prioritize flood prevention highly enough.
Overlooking flooded Hamburg, Iowa.
The zig-zag of the levee breached March 18th can be faintly seen in this photo.
The Bartlett Grain Elevator in Hamburg, surrounded by floodwaters.
This is the I-29 Hamburg overpass.
A grain elevator collapsed after floodwaters poured into it.
Floodwaters in Hamburg.
A main thoroughfare in Hamburg, submerged in floodwaters.
Terry Holliman’s NAPA auto parts store.
Flooding from the Missouri River covered two-thirds of Hamburg, worse than the 2011 flood.
Floodwaters beginning to recede in Hamburg.
Businesses as well as homes suffered flood damage.
United States Sen. Roy Blunt says the report released by special counsel Robert Mueller should allow Congress to put accusations the Trump campaign colluded with Russia behind it, so it can concentrate on other issues.
A summary of the report released by the attorney general says it found no evidence the president’s campaign conspired with Russia during the 2016 election.
“I think that it was a significant thing for the administration, for the president, and for the country,” Blunt, a Republican, tells St. Joseph Post. “No matter how much the other side doesn’t want to get that issue behind us, I think the Mueller report will largely put that issue behind us and we need to be talking about things like the economy, people’s families, and what we can do to create more opportunity in the country.”
Attorney General William Barr says he plans to release a redacted version of the report to Congress by the middle of the month. According to the Justice Department, the Mueller report is 400 pages long, not including references. In a four-page summary of the report, Barr stated it contained no evidence the Trump campaign coordinated with Russia during the president’s campaign against Democrat Hillary Clinton. Barr also concluded the president did not commit obstruction.
Barr says Mueller is working with the Justice Department to black out portions of the report before it is released to members of Congress. The portions redacted would be deemed to compromise national security, interfere with ongoing investigations, and infringe on personal privacy of those not accused of a crime.
Blunt agrees with the attorney general that portions of the report needs to be blacked out before release.
“There’d be substantial amounts of it that would and should be redacted,” Blunt says. “It would impact who you talked to and how you talked to them as well as how we know some of the things we know about Russia and the world generally.”
Blunt says it is proper to protect the identity of those interviewed, but not found to have committed any crime.
“If there is other information there, I think the long-term view of the Justice Department has been, no, it’s not our job to talk about bad things people may have done that were not criminal, not part of the justice system. Just because you know it doesn’t mean you’re supposed to talk about it,” according to Blunt.
Blunt serves on the Senate Intelligence Committee and hopes it wraps up its investigation soon.
It might just be one lane, but U.S. Highway 59 in southern Buchanan County has re-opened.
Open burning has been cancelled today due to high winds.
Very light turnout today for a light General Municipal Election ballot with one high-profile item to be decided.
