Contractors work to protect rail-lines near Big Lake in Holt County, Photo Opportunity Courtesy of Barnes Realty
Burlington Northern Railroad is working to raise tracks near Big Like up to 20 inches higher in some places.
Trains are still running through many of the BNSF tracks in Northwest Missouri as flooding looms.
Crews are working on a 3.4 mile stretch near Big Lake to raise the track by pulling it up and putting rock and concrete ties underneath.
Spokesperson Andy Williams calls the rail-lines a “critical link between Lincoln Nebraska and Kansas City.” They are hauling rock to the area by train.
The line however running towards Hamburg Iowa is closed. A levee was placed across the tracks in effort to save the town.
The move to save the track does bring some controversy. Some believe they are significantly changing the floodplain.
When life hands you cicadas, cover them with chocolate. That’s what Julie Love of the Missouri Conservation Department did last week. Watch as the Departments Jim Low samples the crafty treat.
(AP) – A former northwest Missouri sheriff faces eight federal misdemeanor counts of depriving women of their civil rights for allegedly forcing them to expose themselves.
Prosecutors say former Worth County Sheriff Neal Groom talked the women into exposing various body parts during searches. They say Groom forced four women to show their breasts, while others showed their lower abdomen and stomach in searches from May 2006 through December 2007.
The 60-year-old served for eight years before losing his election bid in 2008. The U.S. attorney’s office in Kansas City says Groom hasn’t made a court appearance, and it’s unclear if he has an attorney.
His initial appearance and a change of plea hearing are scheduled for Aug. 10 in Kansas City.
Click the map for up-to-date road condition information across Missouri.
MoDOT has announced the Army Corps of Engineers are sandbagging along the northbound lanes of the interstate and have closed one lane going northbound.
The sandbagging efforts are from about a mile south of the state line with Iowa to just shy of a mile north of the line.
Also, Route V in Atchison County near the stateline is closed due to floodwaters over-topping the roadway. Interstate 29 in parts of Iowa have closed as well.
Click the map on the left for road closure information from the Missouri Department of Transportation. For Iowa, click on the map below.
Photo’s taken Tuesday, June 14th at the Remington Nature Center and Heritage Park along the Riverfront at St. Joseph. The river level was at 23.11 feet at midday Tuesday.
Looking north from the parking lot.
Looking south along the western edge of the fields.
Looking south along the western edge of the parking lot.
Breached Levee in Atchison County, Courtesy of Atchison County Emergency Management.
A levee in Atchison County MO. has breached and water is coming through, threatening northern Atchison County and Hamburg Iowa.
Atchison County officials announced the breach and asked for evacuations for those who have not evacuated already north of the Nishnabotna River.
The breach was reported just before 11:30 this morning about 1.25 miles south of the state line along Levee L575. The beach initially created a hole 50 feet wide, but in an afternoon news conference, the Army Corps of Engineers said the breach had reached a width of approximately 300 feet.
Hamburg Iowa is protected by a secondary levee. According to Omaha District Chief of Emergency Management Kim Thomas, the current temporary levees were designed to an elevation of 916 feet, which floodwaters are expected to reach by Wednesday. Levee district officials plan to add a new product to the top of the temporary levees to provide a new elevation limit of 919 feet. The Corps predicts a new water-surface elevation topping out at about 918 feet.
The levee sponsor has requested technical assistance and will proceed with a partial breach to a downstream portion of the levee to minimally delay the time in which the area will elevate to 916 feet.
Thomas said levees can be breached for a variety of reasons and, at this point, it is too early to determine the cause of Monday’s full breach. The breach Monday follows weeks of high flows and increasing releases from the main stem dams in Montana and the Dakotas.
According to a news release, the Corps has contractors in place who are working to raise the Ditch 6 levee near Hamburg to a total of eight feet to provide a temporary flood-risk reduction measure for that community.
The National Weather service has issued a flash flood warning for the area. The levee was built by the Army Corps of Engineers in the late 1940’s.
Flood waters are expected to reach Interstate 29 and Hamburg sometime tomorrow, according to the National Weather Service.
Kansas Gov. Brownback visited with local leaders Monday
Kansas Governor Sam Brownback assured Elwood residents they are not expendable.
Governor Brownback visited with officials in Atchison and Elwood Monday afternoon to address their concerns with floodwater along the Missouri River.
The state will offer all the support it can to the area, Brownback said when addressing concerns that Elwood may get ignored.
“Your not expendable,” Brownback said.
The governor told local officials that whenever a concern or problem arises, to contact the state level, who will support the local efforts as much as possible.
He also heard from resident concerned with flood insurance. He offered for the insurance commissioner’s office to help bring answers to questions regarding flood insurance and what the insurance companies can and cannot do.
“I think they would be more than happy to try to chase that down,” Brownback said.
He suggested scheduling a teleconference with Doniphan county residents and the insurance commission to address any flood insurance issues.
Officials in Holt County are hoping a recently built secondary levee will protect Big Lake but are urging evacuations.
A levee breached today southwest of Craig, just downstream from where the levee breached last year along the Union township levee.
In a news release Monday morning, Holt County authorities said the breach was 75 yards wide.
Farmers have built a high bank levee in the area where the water is spilling into now, Holt County Commissioner Mark Sitherwood said.
“It is a new levee,” Sitherwood said. “We certainly hope it holds.”
The levee is likely to fail at some point, County Clerk Kathy Kunkel.
“It does not have grass on it at this time. So it’s a consensus between emergency management officials that it’s likely that as we go into this long period of time with a high river that eventually that levee will fail,” Kunkel said.
County officials are urging residents in the Big Lake area to take action now and evacuate.
WATCH: Water being released Saturday from the Garrison Dam’s emergency spillway in North Dakota. The gates were closed for a short time for repairs. Gates were opened back up Saturday and this video shows the water flow. Video by the Army Corps of Engineers. The current release at the Garrison Dam is between 140,000 and 145,000 cubic feet per second. The corps are expected to release 150,000 cfs by this coming Friday at the Garrison Dam.
