Rockport prepares for flood

ROCKPORT, MO (KXCV) - This is day nine for Rockport, Missouri residents trying to prepare for the Missouri River Flooding.

This morning about 65 state prison inmates from Maryville – about an hour away – are in town to help residents fill more sandbags.

Earth dams are being built around a grain elevator two miles from the river … but the focus is the 10 feet of dirt around Rockport’s water treatment plant four miles from the river.

Atchison County Presiding Commissioner Kurt Livengood says while Rockport area residents are packing belongings, around 120 citizens have already moved out … based on the flooding in 1993 and again in 2007.

"The good part about this is most people in this county has been through this before. Those people who are moving out, have been through this before. They understand it- they know it way better than I do. And so it’s not hard for them to understand where we’re coming from," Livengood said.

The county’s emergency manager says 40 thousand sandbags have been filled in the past four days in Rockport, with 20 thousand of those protecting the water treatment plant.

Kirk Wayman, KXCV

Posted in: flooding,Kirk Wayman,Rockport MO