By BRENT MARTIN

St. Joseph Post

Even as the Missouri River recedes from historic to near-historic levels, forecasters at the National Weather Service worry about future flooding.

Weather Service hydrologist Kevin Low with the Missouri Basin River Forecast Center in Pleasant Hill is keeping an eye on larger than normal snowmelt in the northern Missouri basin.

“As I’ve been stating the past couple of days, we do expect renewed flooding along the Missouri River downstream of Gavins Point due to snowmelt inflows from the Big Sioux, the Vermillion, and the James (Rivers),” Low says during a conference call hosted by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

Low expects minor flooding between Omaha and Brownville, Nebraska in early April due to excess northern snowmelt. He expects Rulo, Nebraska and St. Joseph to remain in at least minor flood stage through the beginning of April.

The National Weather Service reports the Missouri River at St. Joseph dropped to 27.95 feet by 7:30 this morning. NWS projects the river will drop out of major flood stage this evening, reaching 26.9 feet by around 7 o’clock.

Low expects larger than normal snowmelt to raise the level of those three northern Missouri basin rivers to record heights. Whether that will translate to record crests on the Missouri downstream is hard to predict.

What isn’t hard to predict, according to Low, is that there will be more flooding.

“I just want to let folks know that we’re not over with the flood season, yet, and these projections for what the Big Sioux and the James will do at the end of the month do not include any rainfall that might occur between now and then,” Low says. “It just includes the snowmelt.”

Low says that is the unknown in all of this is:  how much rain the area will receive this spring.

“I believe that the public should be very concerned about the mainstem below Gavins Point for the next month, at least,” according to Low.

Snowmelt had been proceeding rapidly until temperatures dropped up north, slowing the rate of melting.

By BRENT MARTIN

St. Joseph Post

Levels on the Missouri River continue to go down and area residents are returning to their homes.

The National Weather Service reports the level on the Missouri River has receded to 29.58 feet at St. Joseph at 7am, after reaching what could be a record crest. Preliminary indications are the Missouri River edged just above the record crest of 32.1 feet Friday before beginning its steady decline. NWS expects the Missouri to drop below the major flood stage Monday evening, when the river is projected to drop to 26.6 feet.

An evacuation order issued by the city of St. Joseph and Buchanan County for residents protected by the L-455 levee was lifted earlier. The levee protects the southern part of the city, including Lake Contrary.

A notice issued by the St. Joseph Police Department indicates now the only streets closed due to flooding are Stockyards, Cedar and Waterworks.

Elwood, Kansas residents are being allowed to return home after a voluntary evacuation order virtually emptied the city and closed businesses there.

By BRENT MARTIN

St. Joseph Post

All eyes are on the Missouri right now, especially in Kansas.

Elwood, Kansas, just across the Missouri River from St. Joseph, has evacuated as the Missouri rises to nearly record levels. The National Weather Service reports the Missouri at 32.01 at 2:30pm Friday, just shy of the record crest of 32.1 feet reached in 1993. NWS expects the level of the Missouri River at St. Joseph to begin to lower this evening, projecting it to keep dropping and leave the major flood stage by Sunday morning.

Officials called for the evacuation of Elwood when the river reached 30 feet.

Doniphan County, Kansas Emergency Management spokesman Rick Howell says Elwood residents cooperated when asked to leave their town.

“You’re talking about a town that for generations has lived with the Missouri River, so they’ve seen this type of thing through the years,” Howell says. “So, when local officials start to talk about evacuation for precautionary steps and protection of life and property, these local residents take that seriously.”

Members of the nearby 139^th Airlift Wing at Rosecrans Airport are helping sandbag operations to fortify the levee which protects Elwood.

The 139^th Vice Commander, Col. John Cluck, says high priority equipment has been moved from nearby Rosecrans Memorial Airport. Its command center is now located across the river in St. Joseph. The C-130 planes have been flown to Topeka, Kansas.

Cluck says the 139^th feels confident the levee will hold.

“She’s a strong old girl and she’s holding tight,” Cluck says. “So, we’re helping her. We are continuing to stack sandbags on top of it to give us some more depth. We have water on sandbags, but that’s okay, that’s why we put them there.”

Sandbagging will continue until the river recedes enough to be deemed no longer a threat to Elwood.

By BRENT MARTIN

St. Joseph Post

High water from the crest of the Missouri River has triggered evacuation orders for parts of St. Joseph.

City officials in Elwood, Kansas, across the river, already issued evacuation orders after the Missouri reached 30 feet last night. It currently stands at 32.02 feet, just below the record crest reached at St. Joseph in 1993.

A levee breach sent floodwaters over Highway 59 in southern Buchanan County, closing the highway from Rushville to Atchison, including the Amelia Earhart Bridge.

St. Joseph police report Kirschner Addition, located north of Alabama, is now under mandatory evacuation.

The City of St. Joseph and Buchanan County issued a voluntary evacuation of areas behind the L-455 levee system on the Missouri side. St. Joseph police says there is an additional two feet of levee height protecting the area, but the voluntary evacuation was issued in an abundance of caution.

The area behind the L-455 levee unit includes nearly all areas west of Lake Avenue/U.S. 59 Highway, between Contrary Creek on the south and Atchison Street on the north.

Stockyards Expressway will remain closed until further notice due to flooding. A mandatory evacuation order has been issued for Kirshner Addition north of Alabama Street. Alabama from King Hill Ave to Lake Ave is open. Alabama from Lake Ave to Lake Contrary is closed.

The animal shelter opening at Hyde Park has been postponed until the animals from the Lake Avenue Shelter can be moved there.

An evacuation shelter has been set up at the Keys Church, located at 6002 South 9^th Street. An animal shelter has been established at Hyde Park, located at 899 E. Hyde Park.

By BRENT MARTIN

St. Joseph Post

A levee north of Highway 59 in southern Buchanan County has been breached by floodwaters, forcing the closing of Highway 59 from Highway 45 to the Amelia Earhart Bridge into Atchison, Kansas.

Buchanan County Emergency Management Director Bill Brinton says floodwaters now threaten Winthrop as well as Lewis and Clark Village.

“We have notified all of the residents who live in southwest Buchanan County and then the city of Winthrop and Lewis and Clark Village. Most of the people who (live in) Lewis and Clark Village have self-evacuated,” Brinton says.

Brinton says emergency crews had been closely watching as floodwaters overtopped the levee. The levee gave way and failed late this morning, sending floodwaters over Highway 59 and throughout the area.

The levee break could relieve growing flooding concerns downstream.

“We just heard from the National Weather Service that we were about to have a record set near Atchison and, with the water flowing down, it’s now flowing out into Buchanan County and so it certainly is a flooding issue,” Brinton says.

The National Weather Service has revised upward the expected crest of the Missouri River at St. Joseph. The Weather Service says the river now has topped 28.5 feet and is projected to crest at 30.1 feet tomorrow morning around 7 o’clock.  NWS projects the Missouri River to drop below major flood stage Sunday evening.

By BRENT MARTIN
St. Joseph Post

Extreme northwest Missouri continues to battle floodwaters, even as flooding on the Missouri River moves downstream.

Atchison County Emergency Management Deputy Director Mark Manchester says three levees in the county have failed and the community of Watson has been surrounded by water and cut off from the rest of the county.

Manchester is grateful for one thing:  no deaths so far.

“The levees can be fixed, homes can be repaired, roads can be fixed; people’s lives can’t be replaced,” Manchester says. “And, like I said, thankfully we haven’t had any injuries or anything like that.”

Flooding began in earnest with the failure of the Spencer Dam in northern Nebraska, which sent the Niobrara River cascading south. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers increased water releases from Gavins Point Dam, upstream on the Missouri River, to relieve pressure on Nebraska. But, all that water washed over private levees downstream, sending water over Interstate 29 in southwestern Iowa, forcing the closure of I-29 at Rock Port.

It didn’t stop there.

A levee failed west of Watson, which now finds itself an island. Another levee failed two miles north of Highway 136 and a third was overtopped and collapsed between Rock Creek and Mill Creek.

Manchester says, as bad as the current situation is, he is concerned about the near future.

“A lot of levee damage out there,” Manchester says. “If this turns out to be a wet spring, summer, we get a lot of rains, and the levees haven’t had a chance to get repaired yet, then we could be looking at flooding again later in the year. We don’t know.”

As the flooding in extreme northwest Missouri grew worse, the Missouri Department of Transportation moved to closure of I-29 south, diverting northbound traffic to U.S. 71 just north of St. Joseph.

Manchester says that with the failure of private levees in Iowa and Missouri it makes it difficult to estimate when things might return to normal.

“This is such a different ballgame with the number of breaks that have occurred to our north and the number of areas that are impacted,” according to Manchester. “So, we really don’t know at this time how soon this is going to be over.”

The National Weather Service forecasts the Missouri River to crest Friday morning at just over 29 feet, which would be just below the level reached in 2011. The record crest of slightly higher than 32 feet was reached in 1993. The water level on the river is expect to drop quickly to below major flood stage by the end of the weekend.