USDA Farm and Foreign Service Deputy Under Secretary Karis Gutten(left) speaks with state and local officials Thursday in Holt County
A USDA official says the department is watching the flooding closely and will be assisting farmers throughout the flooding event.
Farm and Foreign Service Deputy Under Secretary Karis Gutten toured flooding in Iowa Wednesday and northwest Missouri Thursday.
Gutten also met with producers to talk about United States Department of Agriculture’s resources that are available to them. Some of those resources though, may not be put in place until after the flood waters start to recede. He said the best way to find how those resources can help producers is to contact the local Farm Service Agency. Click the play button to listen to Gutten’s comments while touring a flooded area near Big Lake in Holt County Thursday morning.
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Gutten, From the Mississippi Delta area, said he understands the devastation flooding can cause. He stated the USDA will continue to work with other federal partners to continue helping the farmers in the area get through the flood event.
The Missouri Highway Patrol noticed a levee being over-topped in Atchison County Missouri Thursday afternoon.
A levee along the Missouri River near Watson was first reported as broke It was later found that it was being over-topped by water, according to the Atchison County Sheriffs department. Troopers flying the levee system spotted the problem.
Atchison County Emergency Management officials say residents of Watson should evacuate at this time. The break is 1.5 miles south of Watson. Watson is a small town with just over 100 residents.
Releases from the Gavins Point Dam earlier this month, photo by the US Army
The Army Corps of engineers are expecting today’s releases at Gavins Point to be the Maximum release amount for the summer.
The Corps announced earlier this week they would increase releases to 160,000 cubic feet per second at Gavins Point today. Click play below to listen to the KFEQ Journal report.
While maps are being prepared for releases of 200,000 cubic feet per second, they don’t expect to go any higher, Gavins Point Operations Manager Dave Becker said.
“You know, we really don’t,” Becker said. “Our projection is based the water that’s already on the ground as well as a wetter than normal weather forecast, and at this point in time based on the water on the ground and the forecast that is our projected peak at Gavins Point.”
According to Corps of Engineers data, that release will be about 1,000 cubic feet per second higher than the in-flow at the reservoir at Gavins Point. Still, the reservoir is at a good level, considering all the water moving through, Becker said.
“Yeah, we’re not at a point of water level at the lake where we need to go to increased surveillance but we are monitoring it anyways. Everything related to the dam is getting monitored more regularly.”
The dam, structurally, is in good shape, Becker said. And it’s nowhere near the maximum amount it can release. Becker says at Gavins Point, if needed, they could release up to 584,000 cubic feet per second. The dam was built with that capability based off of the numbers from the 1952 flood.
Meanwhile, this year, concern started in January when Corps officials noticed larger than normal snow packs and started developing a plan for the Missouri River Basin.
“So they had a real good plan for handling that snow melt. But then these extreme rains in the upper great-plains happened in May,” Becker said. “In northern Wyoming, eastern Montana and the Western Dakotas, that contributed 300 to 600 percent of normal rainfall in the month of May and that really took us to the point where increases needed to be made in the releases to accommodate that water.”
To put the 160,000 cubic feet per second release in perspective, that’s enough water being released per second from Gavins Point to supply nine average homes for a year. That’s a lot of power flowing through Gavins Point, Becker said.
“That’s why we have a hydroelectric power plant,” Becker said. “Then the water that comes through the spillway and runs into 54 energy dissipaters, which are concrete columns, which are used to slow down that water so it doesn’t have the erosive power downstream,” Becker said.
As many have asked for, Becker says there will likely be several reviews of how the corps handled this year’s flood once the flooding is over.
“There’s been public comment to the same, that they believe this flood event deserves a total review,” Becker said. “So it will get a total review, internally from the corps and probably externally as well, and I’m sure there will be lessons learned and things, you know, perhaps people want to do differently.”
Work continues on levee’s in northern Atchison County and a Black-hawk helicopter is once again helping to place sandbags.
This time, workers are working to support a levee along the U.S. Highway 136 in an attempt to re-open the highway soon, according to Atchison County Emergency Management.
Currently, no water is covering the roadway. It was closed earlier this week because if a breach would occur, it would take little time to cover the highway with water. Flood damage would also keep the highway closed longer.
The helicopter being used is landing on the highway and picking up large sandbags to place along the levee. There’s no word on how long that operation may take.
Atchison County Emergency Management continues to use Facebook as a tool to distribute information to the public. The following pictures were posted to their Facebook page recently, For More, visit Atchison County 911 Facebook.
Mo. Gov. Nixon Met with local officials Monday afternoon in St Joseph
Missouri Governor Jay Nixon told Northwest Missouri officials the state is looking into what would happen if the Corps of Engineers releases up to 200,000 cubic feet per second from the Gavins Point Dam.
The governor met with local officials Monday afternoon in St Joseph to discuss flood operations. He was joined by Major General Stephen Danner and Col. Ron Replogle, Superintendent of the Missouri Highway Patrol.
State officials are in the process of drawing inundation maps based off a release of 200,000 cfs from Gavins Point. However, the Corps of Engineers has not said they would reach that massive release of water, according to the Governor.
“Nobody has suggested anything,” Nixon said. “We are trying to stay a week to 10 days ahead of whatever could happen and in that sense we are modeling on our side for 200,000.”
Currently, The Corps of Engineers are releasing approximately 151,500 cfs, according to the Governor. The Corps of Engineers are dealing with the potential of running out of room to store water within the reservoir system as more rains are threatening.
The Governor once again was asked to address the potential of blowing a levee along the Missouri River. He stated there were no plans to do any such thing.
When asked about the potential of flooding at Rosecrans and its future, the Governor said the base will come back from any flooding.
The men and women of Rosecrans and also the National Guard play a vital role during the flooding, Major General Stephen Danner said.
“We’re there to help good citizens and protect them from bad things,” Danner said.
Afterwards, Governor Nixon spoke with local media and had this to say about Rosecrans.
City officials in Craig Mo. have announced they have ordered an evacuation effective at noon Tuesday.
At that point, the towns roughly 300 residents will have 48 hours to grab their things and evacuate due to the potential of flood waters reaching the town.
If a breach does occur, construction workers along the levees told city officials it may take two or three days for the water to reach the town. With the deterioration of levees, they claim a breach is likely.
The evacuation is a preventative matter to get people assistance who will need it now, City Project Manager Terry Eaton said.
“And the other concern is sight-seers and people getting in the road,” Eaton said. “We got a lot of construction equipment here right now and it’s just a safety precaution that the less people in our road the better off we are at this time.”
City officials vow to continue to work on protecting the town, which is surrounded by three rivers. The Missouri River, The Little Tarkio River and the Big Tarkio River. A temporary levee was built around the town.
Storm sirens will sound at noon Tuesday and officials will go door-to-door to make sure everyone is aware of the precautionary evacuation order. Despite the odds stacking up against staying dry, city officials remain hopeful the town will dodge a bullet.
“We survived 93, we think we might survive 2011,” Eaton said.
Over-topping Levee in Atchison County, Courtesy of Atchison County 911/Emergency Management
A flash flood warning was issued for Atchison County, Missouri Sunday morning after officials reported a levee along the Missouri River was over-topping along several places.
Over-topping was reported Sunday morning west of the small town of Watson. It was later reported near the Brownville Bridge.
Three major highways near Rock Port have been closed: I-29 north of town, Route 275 north, and US-136 west of town.
Click for more information.
MoDOT has been suggesting motorist also use Highway 71 as another detour.
Atchison County’s Emergency management officials are asking those who have not already evacuated in the western part of the county to do so now.
Also Sunday, a floodwater overtopped a levee across the river in Brownville, Nebraska.
According to the Army Corps of Engineers, water started running over an approximately 30-foot stretch on the southern portion of Levee R-548 late Sunday afternoon. The local sponsor is onsite and is placing sandbags to cut off the flow.
The earthen levee, located south of Brownville in Nemaha County, is in the Federal Program and is operated and maintained by the non-federal sponsor. It was constructed by the Corps in the late 1940s.
For a map of the levee locations, click the Corps logo.
Overtopping occurs when the water is at a higher elevation than the height of a levee, and is not the same thing as a breach or levee failure. Overtopping will allow water to enter the protected area and pond to a depth associated with the amount of water overtopping the levee.
The Corps is in close coordination with the State Emergency Management agencies, officials from the State of Missouri and Nebraska and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) Region to ensure the safety of all in these areas.
These overtoppings follow weeks of high flows and increasing releases from the main stem dams in Montana and the Dakotas. The Corps continues to aggressively monitor and evaluate the inundation areas.
A 1953 Farmall sits in pieces along Highway 71 South of Maryville after the second of two accidents involving tractors Friday evening.
Two men and a woman were injured Friday evening in separate accidents involving tractors along U.S. Highway 71.
The two men were driving tractors north to Maryville for Saturdays Heart of America Tractor cruise when they were involved in accidents about two hours apart.
The first accident happened at 5:39 when a 2004 Nissan driven by Shirley Burgess of St Joseph slammed into the back of a 1959 John Deere nine miles south of Maryville, according to the Missouri Highway Patrol.
60-year-old Burgess was taken to St. Francis Hospital in Maryville with moderate injuries. 70-year-old Larry Haist of Barnard, driver of the tractor, suffered serious injuries and was also taken to St. Francis.
The accident backed up both northbound lanes of traffic while emergency workers cleaned-up the accident scene.
The second accident came at 7:50 p.m. six miles south of Maryville when a car full of 19-year -old’s crashed into the back of a 1953 Farmall tractor, breaking the tractor in half.
47-year-old Mark Beggs, driver of the tractor, was taken to St. Francis with moderate injuries. Driver of the Chevy Malibu, Keenan Joiner, along with Colton Mattson, Adam Thompson, and Christopher Winans, all 19 of Maryville, were not injurued in the accident.
(AP) – Gov. Jay Nixon has vetoed legislation that could have required voters to show photo identification and created an early-voting period in Missouri.
Nixon said he spiked the bill Friday because the photo ID mandate could have made it harder for the disabled and elderly to vote.
A proposed constitutional amendment on photo IDs and early voting still is set to appear on the 2012 ballot. But that measure only authorizes state laws on the two topics – it does not require them.
Nixon’s veto affects a separate bill that would have implemented the photo ID and early voting provisions.
The Legislature also passed a photo ID law in 2006, but the state Supreme Court struck it down as an infringement on the fundamental right to vote in the Missouri Constitution.
(AP) – Priest sex abuse victims are urging prosecutors in Jackson, Buchanan and Clay Counties to convene grand juries to investigate whether Catholic church hierarchy concealed crimes in the Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph.
In a letter dated Friday, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests also asked for the cancellation of a weekend march in support of Bishop Robert Finn.
Finn has apologized repeatedly for not taking action earlier in the case of a Kansas City-area priest charged with possessing child pornography. Priest Sean Ratigan was charged earlier this summer. An internal investigation is also underway.
A federal lawsuit claims the diocese and Finn tried to cover up the priest’s crimes to save the church’s reputation.
Finn announced last week a plan to deal with the recent allegations of sexual misconduct in the diocese. The plan includes hiring a former federal prosecutor to investigate.
