The City of St Joseph’s Animal Control & Rescue is busy making plans to move a lot of animals in the event that the Missouri River rises to a level that would force evacuations.
The current shelter at 701 Lower Lake Road would almost certainly flood if the river rises dramatically
Humane Educator Amber Harmeyer tells us they’d like to find a temporary shelter, because their current shelter would almost certainly flood.
Harmeyer says they need a building with good parking, electricity for air conditioning, and easy to clean floors (no wood floors).
The shelter at 701 Lower Lake Road currently houses more than two dozen dogs and about a dozen cats, which would need to be moved if water levels rise dramatically.
If you’d like to offer a space call Animal Control and Rescue at (816) 271-4871
Two antique tractors were rear-ended in separate traffic accidents Friday evening on 71 Highway south of Maryville. One happened at 5:39 pm 9 miles south of Maryville. Two hours later a second tractor was rear-ended on the same highway six miles away. Both tractors were northbound. The Highway Patrol says the driver of the first tractor, a 1959 John Deere, 70-year-old Larry Haist of Barnard, was taken to Saint Francis Hospital with serious injuries. The driver of the pickup that hit him from behind, 60 year old Shirley Burgess of Saint Joseph, was taken to Saint Francis with moderate injuries. In the second accident, a car occupied by four 19-year-old boys hit the rear of a 1953 International tractor driven by 47 year old Mark Beggs of Guilford. Beggs was taken to Saint Francis Hospital with moderate injuries. Both tractors were on their way to a tractor cruise fundraiser when the accidents happened.
Starting Monday June 20, motorists who normally use eastbound Frederick will face a long detour around Ashland Avenue, where they’re replacing a manhole. That job will take about a week.
The detour will move traffic onto Colhoun to 22nd and then south to Jules….over to 36th Street and back north to Frederick.
Officials say westbound traffic should not be affected.
Ashland will be closed at Frederick. You can take Noyes to Frederick to travel east. Or, use State Street to 26th to head west on Frederick.
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.
Two breaches in the levee near Big Lake Village Saturday night prompted the mandatory evacuation of the village. Most residents had already left. There are nearly 160 permanent residences in the community, along with several vacation homes.
Big Lake Village 6/15/2011
Officials say there are no injuries reported .
US-159 highway is closed from Missouri Highway P to Rulo Nebraska. Missouri Route 111 (Lake Shore Drive) is closed from Route 118 to US 159. Smaller access roads to the village were shut down Sunday.
Both breaches are in Levee District Ten north and west of Big Lake Village.
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.
Residents in Hamburg, Iowa are keeping their fingers crossed as floodwaters from the Missouri River continue to rise. The emergency levee constructed over the last week appears to be holding up.
Brittney Christian is a photographer who lives in Hamburg, and is the proprietor of the Photos By Britt studio there.
She tells us by Friday there was some seepage inside the levee, but so far the water has been clear. That’s a good sign, according to the Army Corps of Engineers, which is monitoring the levee looking for “dirty water,” a sign that the levee is compromised.
Brittney graciously sent us this series of photographs that show the daily progress of water moving toward Hamburg. The first picture was taken June 12. Each subsequent photograph shows one days progress of both the flood and the construction of the levee.
(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.
Liaison officers from Task Force 110, the Missouri Army
National Guard team tapped to support flood fight efforts in northwest
Missouri, have routinely been on the ground in Andrew County working with the
emergency operations center for the area.
Staff Sgt. Brian Garr, of Chillicothe, and Sgt. Jeremy Hughes, of Burlington
Junction, spent June 14 reporting on areas along the Missouri River. Sand
boils were reported south of Amazonia, and these Citizen-Soldiers set out to
locate them and report on what they found.
Surrounded by countless rows of field corn and very few landmarks, Garr and
Hughes relied on basic land navigation and orienteering skills to locate the
sand boils. They then calculated their grid location so they could be
continually tracked.
Andrew Marske, civil engineer with Army Corps of Engineers – Kansas City
district, said the sand boils are caused from the water on the river side of
the levee trying to equalize the pressure on the field side.
“It is finding the path of least resistance,” said Marske.
The water under pressure pushes up through the ground and appears to “boil”
up. Sand boils can be a mechanism contributing to a levee failure during
floods. However, Marske said the sand boils and pin boils, smaller versions,
appear to be harmless at this time, but will be flagged and watched as the
river continues to change.
“We’ll just monitor it and see what happens,” said Marske. “This out in the
middle of a cornfield is much better than next to the levee.”
The sand boils at this location are far enough away from the levee to cause
little alarm, but still worthy of monitoring, Marske said. If the sand boils
were next to the levee and sediment is clearly moving, caused by the water
boiling up out of the ground, this would present a problem because the levee
would be losing material from underneath.
“The levee settles in that spot. That could weaken it and potentially breach
it,” Marske said. “It’s good to have lots of sets of eyes out here.”
Working with the Army Corps of Engineers and other local officials has been a
learning experience for both of these Citizen-Soldiers.
This is not Garr’s first state emergency duty, nor his first flood duty. He
was called up during the flood of 1993 and supported missions in the wake of
Hurricane Katrina.
Though Garr has a fair amount of experience under his belt, he said so far it
has been an education nonetheless. As a member of Battery B, 1-129th in
Chillicothe, Garr also deployed to Germany and Kosovo and is using training
he received for those missions on this flood duty.
Ultimately, what means the most to Garr is knowing he is making a difference
in Missouri.
“It’s nice to get out and help the people of the state,” said Garr. “It’s
nice to help people that are out here trying to make a living. We’re here to
help them to try to continue doing that.”
Hughes, who serves with Headquarters, Headquarters Company, 1-129th Field
Artillery in Maryville, is experiencing a stateside mission for the first
time and is proud to be a part of the flood fight effort.
“This is all pretty close to home,” said Hughes.
This is the second flood mission the Missouri National Guard has taken on in
2011 and the seventh flood response since 2007. The Citizen-Soldiers and
Airmen are highly experienced in flood response.
