Blunt hopeful about Missouri River working group

Missouri Senator Roy Blunt is optimistic that the first meeting of the Missouri River working group will bring common ground for both the northern and southern basins of the Missouri river.

The group is spearheaded by Missouri Senators Claire McCaskill and Roy Blunt and North Dakota Senators Kent Conrad and John Hoeven.

While Senator Blunt says he is not positive any new plans will come out of the first meeting, he is hopeful the meeting will illustrate a newly formed common ground deposited by the unprecedented flooding.

“And you know, this working group is to see how much work we can do together. And I’m optimistic that will be a significantly different discussion, than the discussions of the past decade of so, on the river,” Blunt said.

Senator Blunt says historically there has been little to no consensus between those states in the northern and southern basins of the river.

However, he is now hopeful the unprecedented flooding in the northern basin will allow them to understand the problems the southern basin incurs every year.

Tim Filla, KRCU

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St. Joseph officials concerned over flood's economic impact

ST. JOSEPH (KXCV) - Northwest Missouri’s largest city dealing with rising Missouri River flood water is struggling with policy versus potential economic impact.

St. Joseph officials have plans in place for both voluntary and mandatory evacuations but are concerned about clearing out its south-side industrial park area.

City spokeswoman Mary Robertson says forced evacuations of businesses will be case-by-case.

"Given the duration of this long-term event, if we rise to 31 and a half feet, we could stay there for 60 days," Robertson said.

"You might have a business in the south side that is not inundated by water - is not effected by river levels and we want to have them be able to sustain their operations and would want to work. But we would insist they have their own preparations- their own plan- in place, would work with the city, and make sure the city is very comfortable with their plans."

Missouri River levels at St. Joseph are forecast to drop slightly until Tuesday morning.

Kirk Wayman, KXCV

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Iowa levee breach helps communities downstream

ROCK PORT, MO (KXCV) - Thursday morning’s levee breach at Percival, Iowa has actually helped flooded communities downstream.

Mark Manchester is the deputy emergency manager at Atchison County in Rock Port, Missouri- about 30 miles south of the levee failure.

He says several communities south of the breach have noticed flood waters dropping.

"The gauge at Nebraska City has dropped 6 to 8 inches in approximately 5 hours and the Brownville gauge hasn’t dropped near that much but you can see it looked like it was starting to turn down a little bit so it’s not going to be a huge break for us but anything that we can get we’ll take right now," Manchester said.

Baring any unexpected rain, flood levels on the Missouri are expected to remain lower than they have been for the next 4 or 5 days.

Kirk Wayman, KXCV

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President declares state of emergency in Missouri

President Barack Obama declared that an emergency exists in the State of Missouri on Thursday.

He ordered Federal aid to supplement state and local response efforts in the regions struck by the flooding that has swamped the state since June 1.

The action authorizes the Federal Emergency Management Agency, or FEMA, to coordinate all disaster relief efforts.

Specifically, FEMA is authorized to identify, mobilize, and provide at its discretion, equipment and resources necessary to alleviate the impacts of the emergency.

Emergency protective measures, limited to direct Federal assistance, will be provided at 75 percent Federal funding.

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Guard warns citizens that flood could last for months

State emergency officials are expecting Missouri River flooding to move across the state in the coming months.

The Missouri National Guard is warning residents along the swollen river if flooding starts to go down, it’s no sign the flood fight is letting up.

The Guard has more than 200 citizen soldiers working with local agencies in flooded areas, protecting abandoned property and even flying Blackhawk mission to drop sandbags.

The Missouri National Guard’s director of plans and operations, Colonel David Boyle, says river stage forecasts can be deceiving.

“This fight will expand as it expands from northwest Missouri across to the lower Missouri all the way over to Saint Charles,” Boyle said. “ It also will ebb and flow, so whatever fights we’re in today- say it’s overtopping today, sometime in the future we’ll probably be revisiting that same fight with a breech or some kind of a failure or some kind of other problem. Or if it goes down we’ll revisit with overtopping again.”

The Guard is also using more than 30 Hum-V’s in northwest Missouri’s flood areas and 11,000 Guard soldiers are available to state officials to help during the next two months.

Flood waters from the Missouri River are not expected to cause additional flooding on the Mississippi in Southeast Missouri. However, the Army Corps of Engineers cautions that a rising Ohio River may cause a bump in river levels south of Cairo.

Kirk Wayman, KXCV with Jacob McCleland, KRCU

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Flood fight continues in NW Missouri

ST. JOSEPH, MO (KXCV) - More than 2 hundred Missouri National Guard and Air Guard Soldiers are now fighting the flooding Missouri River.

Monday at Rosencrans Air Base near St. Joseph, Governor Jay Nixon got an extensive briefing from the Guard and heard the Missouri will rise even higher throughout this week.

"The bottom line is the purpose is to say to everybody across the Show-Me State, all the way from that Nebraska-Iowa border all the way to the Illinois-Missouri border, we are standing up flood fighting operations, we are standing with the locals," Nixon said. "We expect to continue to be in this operation for many, many weeks."

After the operational briefing by the Guard, Nixon flew in a Blackhawk helicopter over extreme northwest Missouri to survey the flooding from the air.

At the same time he took off from the base, a town about three minutes away issued a voluntary evacuation order for its residents.

Kirk Wayman, KXCV

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McCaskill wants answers from Corps

As volunteers and residents in Holt and Atchison counties in northwest Missouri continue sandbagging to keep the rising Missouri River at bay, Senator Claire McCaskill is looking for answers from the Army Corps of Engineers.

McCaskill says she feels the frustration and anger of residents living in the small communities that have been ordered to evacuate, and wants the Army Corps of Engineers to explain the motivating factor for releasing water from reservoirs upriver when they did.

“I need to understand that clearly. I want to make sure that decisions are not being made to protect recreational use of those reservoirs upriver, without focusing enough on potential consequences like we’re seeing now downriver. Those are the kinds of questions that need to be answered,” McCaskill says.

The Army Corps of Engineers is increasing the amount of water released from Gavins Point Dam in South Dakota this week, so the Missouri River will rise even more in Nebraska, Iowa and Missouri.

Julie Bierach, St. Louis Public Radio

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Total cost of Missouri disasters won't be known until August

Missouri Governor Jay Nixon says it could be another month before the state knows the bill after the Joplin tornado and the ongoing north Missouri flooding.

Nixon says he’s hoping the $50 million he’s set aside for matching Federal Emergency funds will be enough, and is confident the Joplin tornado will be more costly than the flooding.

Still, Nixon adds the finances are holding for now.

"The bottom line is that we have the adequate resources to deal with the issues," Nixon said. "We haven’t been out-resourced here yet. There hasn’t been any decisions that we have made- that have been made- based on either overtime for troopers or necessity to call up the Guard or get the helicopters down, that have been limited by cost factors."

Nixon says with debris still being cleaned up in Joplin and the flooding in northwest Missouri continuing, it could be August before the state has a complete cost analysis of the disasters.

Kirk Wayman, KXCV

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Missouri Army National Guard, Civil Air Patrol team up for flood fight

ST. JOSEPH, MO (KXCV) - State officials are calling the northwest Missouri response to Missouri river flooding the “flood fight”… and it’s becoming a literal battle.

Officers from the 139th Task Force at Rosecrans Air Base near St. Joseph have moved equipment out and away from the rising threat, and the Missouri Army National Guard is teaming up with the Civil Air Patrol on air reconnaissance missions over the river.

Colonel Greg Mason heads up Task Force 110 that’s in charge of protecting northwest Missouri from the flooding.

He says both planes and helicopters are being used with more on standby.

"Some of the assets that they may bring to bear are the electrical hoist in case there is a need to rescue people from water. The hoist can also lift huge sandbags and place them on the levees at a spot in an emergency if need be," Mason said. "And also smaller helicopters that we can use to fly the route for reconnaissance or aerial observation."

Mason says even civilian help is welcomed…alerting the citizen soldiers of possible levee breaches as soon as they happen.

Kirk Wayman, KXCV

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No flooding expected in eastern Missouri

How much the Missouri River floods in the eastern part of the state will depend on summer rainfall.

That’s what Colonel Tom O’Hara of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers told reporters at press conference in downtown St. Louis Thursday morning.

The commander of the Corp’s St. Louis District says if we get average rainfall spread throughout the summer, we can expect only minor flooding.

“That could change based on additional rainfall, if we get higher than normal rainfall, or we get concentrated rainfall in various areas,” O'Hara said.

O’Hara says heavy rainfall would cause the Missouri River to overtop most of the agricultural levees between Washington, Missouri and the confluence.

Record high flows at upstream Missouri River dams will keep river levels above flood stage in our area through the end of August.

Véronique LaCapra, St. Louis Public Radio

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Corps: Missouri River flooding won't affect lower Mississippi

The Army Corps of Engineers says that flooding on the Missouri River will not cause additional flooding on the Lower Mississippi River. The Corps also says that Missouri River flooding will not cause more floodwater to enter the Birds Point New Madrid floodway unless a significant amount of rain falls on the region.

In a press release, the Corps states that river levels should continue to fall at Cairo. River levels at Cairo would return to flood stage only with 5 to 7 inches of rain over a widespread area on the lower Missouri, middle Mississippi, or middle or lower Ohio River.

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Nixon: State is prepared for Missouri River flooding

ST. LOUIS, MO (ST. LOUIS PUBLIC RADIO) - Governor Jay Nixon says the state of Missouri is well prepared for a surge of water that's heading down the Missouri River.

The Missouri National Guard is working with local communities on flood preparation.

The floods are driven by record releases from five reservoirs near the Missouri's headwaters.

In the past, Governor Nixon has criticized releases from the dams, especially those that are scheduled every spring to help with the breeding of an endangered fish.

But the water is coming, he said today, and his role as executive in chief is to get ready for it.

"Our focus is on making sure that we are keeping life and property safe, making sure communities are prepared, and being a strong lifeline to help them rebuild afterward," Nixon said.

A Corps spokesman says the agency delayed the release for as long as possible help ease flooding earlier this month along the Mississippi River downstream.

Rachel Lippmann, St. Louis Public Radio

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Sandbagging continues at nuclear power plant

BROWNVILLE, NE (KXCV) - Sandbagging continues at a nuclear power plant about 2 hours north of Kansas City.

Cooper Nuclear Power Plant at Brownville, Nebraska sits on the Missouri River and has water intakes from the Missouri for its operations.

Cooper Spokesman Mark Becker says about 3 hundred people have been working for the past two weeks making sure the emergency plan is in place if the flood waters would reach the plant.

"We have additional fuel oil brought into the facility that would run the diesel generators in case we lose our off site power. We’ve got other consumables that we’ve basically topped off at the plant in case we couldn’t have access to the plant by vehicle traffic," Becker said.

Becker adds Cooper Nuclear does plan on continuing to operate even if the river floods

He says the Missouri River will have to rise another four feet before sandbagging on the inside doors at the facility would start.

Current forecasts show that may have to happen around Wednesday of next week.

Kirk Wayman, KXCV

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Missouri River flooding could be devastating for agriculture

Rising water levels on the Missouri river are expected to swamp hundreds of thousands of acres of crops and halt barge traffic.

The threat of decreased crop acreage in the Dakotas, Iowa, Nebraska and Missouri is driving prices for corn and soy beans Wednesday.

Ron Plain is a Professor of Agricultural Economics at the University of Missouri. He says flooding along the Missouri River could be devastating for bottomland farmers.

“The water level is going to be up for over a month, some talk of maybe two months, which means there won’t be any crops harvested off the land this year, because by the time water level goes down it looks like it will be too late to get a crop grown before frost shows up,” Plain said.

Plain says Missouri is a major producer of soybeans, planting some 5.3 million acres this year.

Adam Allington, St. Louis Public Radio

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St. Joseph prepares for Missouri River flood

ST. JOSEPH, MO (KXCV) - St. Joseph officials are very concerned about the coming flooding on the Missouri River.

Donna Miller is the secretary of the board overseeing the levee that protects St. Joseph’s stockyards from the Missouri.

She paints a nightmare scenario for the 77 thousand residents of the northwest Missouri city if the levee is breached. St. Joseph would lose power and sewer. Factories would shut down, including the chemical plant, Omnium.

“You want those chemicals going down the river? I think not! The power outages… the sewer… I mean we can live without lights- we can get generators. But you can’t do anything with potty,” Miller said.

St. Joseph officials are working with the Corps of Engineers to use automated sandbagging machines to protect against a breech or overflow of the levees protecting the city.

Kirk Wayman, KXCV

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Emergency preparations in place for NW Missouri

ST. JOSEPH, MO (KXCV) - Emergency preparations are ramping up for Missouri River flooding during the next six weeks.

The Army Corps of Engineers is releasing dam pressure upstream in South Dakota, with about twice the normal amount of water on the way toward the Show-Me-State.

Sand bags are already being filled along the Missouri River north of Kansas City to the Iowa state line.

Thursday afternoon Missouri Governor Jay Nixon was in St. Joseph to be briefed on preparations and said coordination among state and local agencies has started in northwest Missouri, but residents across the state need to be prepared.

"This is going to run downstream, but it’s a number of weeks until anything gets to the extreme lower stage. We’ll move downstream and talk to folks in the same way we’re talking here as their challenges become more extreme," Nixon said.

The Governor says an emergency declaration is already in place anticipating the flooding along the Missouri and the state National Guard has begun working with state emergency management officials on response measures.

Nixon says there will be time to second guess and question the Corp’s decision to release water causing the concerns, but says now is the time to understand it is coming and concentrate on having preparations in place.

Kirk Wayman, KXCV

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Holt County preparing for flood

HOLT COUNTY, MO (KXCV) - Just as the Army Corps is ready to release water upstream, Missourians living along the Missouri River are already bracing for flooding.

In extreme Northwest Missouri about 40 residents in the Big Lake State Park area have voluntarily evacuated as they anticipating flooding by this weekend.

County clerk Kathy Kunkel serves with the county’s emergency management operations there and says local authorities are getting ready.

"Our emergency management center is open, the dispatch is set up to handle phone calls with a breach- how we’re going to be actionable about that. We’ve sped up our preliminary operations with Red Cross to do temporary sheltering if someone is in need of that," Kunkel said.

Holt County is not issuing mandatory evacuation orders yet but “strongly urging” residents in the Missouri River floodplain to evacuate in the coming days.

Kirk Wayman, KXCV

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