By BRENT MARTIN
St. Joseph Post

Flooding along the Missouri River could prove devastating to northwest Missouri’s transportation system.

“This is historic. This is bigger than ’93. This is bigger than 2011.”

Missouri Department of Transportation District Maintenance and Traffic Engineer, Tonya Lohman, in the MoDOT St. Joseph office says MoDOT officials are preparing for the worst.

“There’s a lot of flooding going on,” Lohman says. “This is an historic one and it is going to be very impactful for us for several days, weeks, months; I don’t know.”

Recent heavy rain, snowmelt up north, and increased water releases from upstream dams are all feeding into the Missouri River, pushing it near record heights. The National Weather Service expects the Missouri River to crest at 30.1 feet early next week, just shy of the record 32.1 feet reached in the 1993 flood. The river will stay near that high for a couple of days before beginning to recede, according to the NWS forecast.

Lohman says MoDOT is in contact with Iowa and Nebraska to coordinate a regional approach for transportation.

Lohman anticipates flooding will close roads throughout northwest Missouri, including portions of Interstate 29 north of St. Joseph. She also anticipates the floodwaters will do great damage to area roads and bridges.

“We believe right now that the Missouri River will be over-topping levees in Iowa. Iowa is making plans right now to close I-29,” according to Lohman “We anticipate over-topping levees in the Atchison County area as well. We may end up closing (Highway) 136 or I-29 in that area.”

Lohman doesn’t just expect flooding to close roads. She expects prolong flooding to do much structural damage to roads and bridges throughout northwest Missouri.

Lohman warns motorists not to drive into floodwaters, pointing out it doesn’t take much rushing water to take over control of a vehicle.

Click here for information on Missouri road conditions from the Missouri Department of Transportation.

Click here for information on Iowa road conditions from the Iowa Department of Transportation.

Click here for information on Nebraska road conditions from the Nebraska Department of Transportation.

By BRENT MARTIN

St. Joseph Post

A ray of sunshine in an otherwise gloomy weather situation as the National Weather Service doesn’t anticipate any more rain for a while.

Weather Service meteorologist Al Pietrycha says the Missouri River is expected to reach major flood stage this weekend after reaching a record crest upstream in Brownville, Nebraska.

“St. Joe is looking, the forecast, to have major flooding to start to occur during the day,” according to Pietrycha. “We hit major flooding at 27 feet and that is projected to occur sometime tomorrow and persist through the weekend.”

The Missouri River is expected to reach a record crest at Brownville this weekend. The record level at the Rulo-Brownville area is 44.8 feet. The river is projected to reach 47.1 feet this weekend before it begins to go down.

Friday morning, the Missouri River level at St. Joseph was just below 25 feet, heading swiftly to 27 feet, considered major flood stage.

It will keep rising.

The National Weather Service expects the Missouri River to reach 30.1 feet in St. Joseph early next week and hold at near record levels until the middle of next week, when it is expected to begin to slowly recede. The record level of the Missouri River in St. Joseph is 32.1 feet, set in 1993.

Pietrycha says the heavy rain which has aggravated flooding conditions in northwest Missouri and northeast Kansas has ended.

“The good news is we’re not expecting any rain or heavy rain any time over the next five to seven days or so, in the area or north of the area that would flow back down into the Missouri,” Pietrycha says. “So, that will help with the water levels.”

Widespread flooding in Nebraska prompted the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to increase water releases upstream of the Missouri River from Gavins Point Dam. The Corps had been releasing 50,000 cubic feet per second and has nearly doubled the output to 90,000, putting extreme pressure on the federal levee system downstream.

 

By BRENT MARTIN

St. Joseph Post

Worries about flooding have been rising the past few days, now another concern has been added.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is increasing water releases from Gavins Point Dam at Yankton, South Dakota into the Missouri River.

Chief of Missouri River Basin Water Management for the Corps, John Remus, admits the Corps doesn’t know exactly what impact that will have on the already swollen Missouri River.

“I do want to say, though, that we really don’t have an option when it comes to Gavins Point,” Remus tells St. Joseph Post. “There’s very little flood control storage in that reservoir and the runoff is pretty excessive coming in just to that reservoir itself. So, we really had no choice but to increase the releases.”

The Corps of Engineers had increased releases from Gavins point to 50,000 cubic feet per second. The Corps had planned to increase releases to 60,000 today, but last night announced it would increase flows to 90,000 to ease widespread flooding in Nebraska that has prompted evacuations of cities and left at least one person dead. Snowpack melt in the Upper Missouri Basin and recent area rain have increased the amount of water pouring into the upstream dam system. Five of the six upstream dams have been able to handle the excess water, but not Gavins Point.

Remus says the Corps is well aware of flooding fears along the Missouri River.

“We’re concerned with that all the time,” Remus says. “The water that people are going to see flooding, whether it’s on the Missouri River main stem or tributaries, is really coming from uncontrolled basins, basins without reservoirs on them. So, there’s really not a whole lot anybody can do to prevent that type of flooding.”

While confident about the federal levee system, Remus worries some of the smaller levees might not hold.

“There are some levees that may not, some privately owned levees or some non-federal levees that may not be able to handle this water,” Remus says. “It kind of depends on the timing of the runoff from the various tributaries.”

Remus says the Corps understands the anxiety its action causes and will strive to keep from worsening flooding in northwest Missouri and northeast Kansas.

 

By BRENT MARTIN

St. Joseph Post

Widespread, historic flooding in Nebraska could have a major impact on northwest Missouri and northeast Kansas as the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers drastically increases water releases from Gavins Point Dam to relieve pressure upstream.

The Army Corps has announced it is increasing releases to 90,000 cubic feet per second from Gavins Point, nearly twice the current releases and far above the 60,000 the Corps had said earlier it would begin releasing on Friday.

In a news release, the Corps stated the increase is necessary as “unregulated inflows from the Niobrara and other watersheds continue to spill into the reservoir.”

The Nebraska Emergency Management Agency reports one death as a farmer drove a tractor into floodwaters at Shell Creek near Columbus to assist a motorist and the tractor was swept away by rushing high water.

The Corps has stated it does not know how the increased flows from Gavins Point will affect the Missouri River downstream. Atchison County emergency management officials have already urged residents living west of Interstate 29 to evacuate as fears of flooding grow with the rising of the Missouri River.

 

By BRENT MARTIN

St. Joseph Post

Residents in extreme northwest Missouri are being urged to leave their homes in anticipation of flooding along the Missouri River.

“At 5 o’clock yesterday (Wed) afternoon, Atchison County declared a state of emergency and, as such, we have also recommended that anybody west of Interstate 29 evacuate due to the potential of floodwaters coming in here in the near future,” Atchison County Emergency Management Deputy Director Mark Manchester tells St. Joseph Post.

Manchester says the emergency declaration was issued after the National Weather Service forecast a record crest on the Missouri River in northwest Missouri, higher even than the record crest during the 2011 flood.

Manchester points out the Missouri River in northwest Missouri reached a record crest of 44.8 feet in 2011.

“And, currently, the Weather Service, as of the last update, was predicting 46.3 feet, which would be another foot and a half above that level,” Manchester says. “So, the concern is obviously there that we could see some possibility catastrophic damage.”

The Tarkio River rose to just under 25 feet on Wednesday, forcing the closure of Highway 59 between Tarkio and Fairfax. Manchester says other tributaries of the Missouri River are running bank-full.

Heavy rain in the area has combined with snowpack runoff up north to raise the Missouri River significantly the past few days.

Manchester says many area residents have already been packing, because they have been through this before.

“They knew as they were hearing things that things had the potential to get bad,” according to Manchester. “So, out of an abundance of caution on their part, a lot of them had started to make preparations on their own, but we just felt it would be best to make an official declaration.”

 

 

By BRENT MARTIN

St. Joseph Post

Northwest Missouri and northeast Kansas residents are being urged to take seriously flood warnings issued by the National Weather Service.

Buchanan County Emergency Management Director Bill Brinton worries about how well the federal and farm levee system will hold.

“The problem around this area has always been the farm levee the past few years,” according to Brinton. “And so, we just have to monitor and make sure because this is going to be a pretty major flood stage down near Atchison. So, we just have to keep an eye on it.”

Area motorists are being warned to not cross floodwaters.

The National Weather Service forecasts the Missouri River to reach its official flood stage of 17 feet this morning, rising to nearly 30 feet by early next week. The Platte River is already out of its banks.

Brinton says too many motorists ignore the barricades erected in front of flooded roads. He says it doesn’t take much floodwater to take over control of a vehicle.

“Don’t drive around our barricades and if you see any standing water, please don’t drive off into it, because it is very dangerous and it is pretty simple, especially this time of year when it is so cold and there is ice on the Missouri River, still ice on the Platte River, your survival time is really cut to a minimum,” Brinton says.

Brinton wants motorists to respect floodwaters and not cross them. Brinton says some motorists have ignored barricades erected after flooding along the Platte River covered roadways.

“It happens all the time in the county,” Brinton says. “Where we have our county barricades on the Platte River, on the different roads that are closed, people drive around them all the time.”

 

 

By BRENT MARTIN

St. Joseph Post

A prediction of moderate flooding along the Missouri River has given way to fears of major flooding this weekend.

The National Weather Service elevated its flood forecast this morning from moderate to major severity for the Missouri at St. Joseph as well as at Atchison and Leavenworth, Kansas.

National Weather Service meteorologist Chris Gitro says a strong storm system is moving over the area the next couple of days.

“Compounding the rainfall is the fact that we have quite a bit of snow melt occurring up north, up across Nebraska, the Dakotas, etcetera, and a lot of that water is going to be flowing downstream along the main stem of the Missouri River in the St. Joseph area,” according to Gitro.

The Weather Service expects the Missouri to rise above its flood stage of 17 feet by Wednesday morning with the possibility of the river reaching 28 feet early next week.

Gitro says this flooding could last a while.

“That’s what it’s looking like right now,” Gitro says. “This river flood warning will probably be in effect for a fair amount of time as all that water upstream, up across the Plains, flows downstream and then we continue to deal with the effects of the precipitation that we’re expecting this week as well.”

NWS says lowland flooding upstream and downstream from St. Joseph occurs when the Missouri River rises to 17 feet, its official flood stage. Backwater from the Missouri will flood property along the Nodaway River when the river reaches 19 feet. Riverfront Park in St. Joseph floods at 21 feet with the northwestern residential area of St. Joseph flooding at 24 feet.

NWS expects the Missouri River to crest at just below 26 feet Friday morning, but to rise again to a second create of 28.6 feet early Tuesday afternoon.