The City of St Joseph on Tuesday released details of its planning for a possible flood emergency, including maps with evacuation plans, emergency routes, and traffic control points.

In the area prone to flooding in north St Joseph, in the vicinity of Water Works Road, a voluntary evacuation alert will be issued if the Missouri River reaches a stage of 25 feet. A mandatory evacuation order will be issued in the event the river reaches 27 feet.

In South St Joseph, the area of greatest risk is bounded roughly by Florence Road on the north, the Missouri River and Ingersoll to the west, Joseph Street to the south, and US-59/Lake Avenue to the east. In that area, a voluntary evacuation alert will be issued if waters reach 30 feet and a mandatory evacuation order will be issued at 31.5 feet.

The city has issued maps in pdf format which include the flood prone areas, evacuation areas and traffic control points.

Click Here for the entire city.

Click Here for a close-up of the south side.

 

City officials urge residents who live behind the south side levee (L-455) to have an evacuation plan in place, and be aware of the city’s evacuation planning.

If a mandatory evacuation order is issued, the city’s outdoor severe weather sirens will be activated.

The sirens will sound only in the event of an immediate evacuation. Routine monthly testing of the sirens has been cancelled for July and August.

Public safety personnel will respond to the area to assist residents with evacuation by directing them to the controlled routes exiting the area. Law enforcement personnel will maintain security, and control access to the evacuated areas for as long as the mandatory status remains in effect. At the time of evacuation, it is important that all residents take personal identification listing their address with them. This will assist them in gaining access to their property through established check points as safety permits, while the event continues.

Residents are encouraged to visit the city’s website (stjoemo.info), watch cable channel 19, or follow us on Facebook or Twitter. This is a quick and effective way to access timely information concerning the flood. To find us on Facebook, search “city of st joseph, mo” or to follow us on Twitter, search “citystjoemo”.

 

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.

Breaches in Missouri River levees upstream of St Joseph are causing a lot of problems in Holt and Atchison Counties, but are improving conditions in St Joseph.

After a fourth breach on the L-575 Levee in Atchison County, residents at Hamburg, Iowa began filling sandbags Tuesday morning even as the Iowa National Guard began the hurried chore of raising the temporary levee currently protecting the town.

Observers say that based on the flow decrease at Brownville, Nebraska by Monday evening, about 1100 acre-feet per hour were pouring through the levee west of Hamburg. As the breach widens, that rate is expected to increase.

The newest breach is located south of the previous three breaches in the L-575 Levee.

The photograph below was provided by Atchison County 911 / Emergency Management

Officials say the L-575 breach, along with one in Holt County, are reducing the flows downstream, including St Joseph, where the stage is expected to drop. According to current predictions from the National Weather Service, the stage at St Joseph was 23.14 feet at 11:30 a.m. Tuesday. River levels in St Joseph were expected to continue dropping until Wednesday morning, and then rise to about 25 feet by Sunday morning.

Buchanan County officials are taking steps to protect the levee at Lake Contrary from an increase in sightseers driving and walking on the levee.

South West Lake Front Drive from Nelson Road on the east all the way around to 51st Road on the west will remain closed for at least a month.

They will leave only one access point open, at the boat dock, and that will be for residents only. Sheriff’s deputies will enforce the roadblock, and residents will need a photo ID and proof of residency to get through.

Western Commissioner Ron Hook says they don’t know how soft the roads are, and they’ve had some sand boils in the area, so they want to protect the levee from unnecessary pedestrian and vehicle traffic. He says the closure could last for the rest of this month or longer, depending on water levels.

A contractor from Arizona was in Atchison County, Missouri Monday and had his camera rolling when a levee collapsed.

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 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.

With a levee breech in Holt County, the American Red Cross has a shelter in Mound City standing-by to receive people that need to evacuate their homes.

The shelter is located in Mound City at the First Christian Church, 402 East 5^th Street.  Residents needing shelter are encouraged to call the Red Cross at 816-232-8439 or 800-378-8439 to inform the Red Cross that shelter is needed for their family and how many will be coming to shelter.

The County Commission and Emergency Management officials urge residents to take action now.  A release from Holt County Commission states, “Residents of Big Lake and rural residents situated east of the newly constructed “High Bank Levee,” are urged to evacuate now as their property is in imminent danger.”

For question on emergency sheltering, please contact the American Red Cross, Midland Empire Chapter at 816-232-8439.

 

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.

 

 

 

 

 

 

An estimated 6,000 people attended the Cameron Air Show this year. Many took part in helicopter rides and trips in classic, open-cockpit airplanes. The photographs are courtesy of Kevin Garrett.