ST. LOUIS, MO (ST. LOUIS PUBLIC RADIO) - The Missouri River Working Group is holding its first meeting on Wednesday to come up with a policy on flood control.

Missouri Senators Roy Blunt and Claire McCaskill launched the group with senators from North Dakota to look for ways to improve flood control along the Missouri River.

Senator Blunt says in the past, states in the upper Missouri River basin like North Dakota haven't had much flooding, but after this year, he expects all states along the river to make flood control a top priority.

"I would expect a good attendance from the Senators from Montana right down to Missouri, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Iowa, Nebraska and Kansas, all of whom have been impacted this year by the flooding conditions of the river," Blunt said.

Senators Blunt and McCaskill have also joined Senator John Thune of South Dakota and others to request a hearing on Missouri River flood management with the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee.

Paul Johnston of the Corps' Omaha District says the Corps is open to working with the senators, but that this year's need for flood water storage was unprecedented.

"We got an extraordinary amount of rain in the end of May, followed by the highest runoff in a hundred years, in June," Johnston said. "And that essentially filled the reservoirs and took away our flexibility."

Johnston says to get reservoir levels back down the Corps has had to release record amounts of water down the Missouri River, leading to flooding.

Véronique LaCapra, 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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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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Disaster assistance available in Cairo

CAIRO, IL (WSIU) - Disaster assistance advice is available in Cairo and other areas in southern Illinois.

Federal Emergency Management Agency Spokesman Sam Ventura says those who want damage assistance should apply by phone or on-line (www.sba.gov/services/disasterassistance or by phone at 800-659-2955) before visiting the Disaster Recovery Center in Cairo.

"They're calling because they have had damages because of the flooding. And now that the counties have been declared disaster areas by the President, they can qualify for federal assistance," Ventura said.

Residents of the following counties are eligible for individual assistance: Alexander, Franklin, Gallatin, Hardin, Jackson, Lawrence, Massac, Perry, Pope, Pulaski, Randolph, Saline, White and Williamson.

One center is located at Emerson Elementary School, 3101 Elm St. in Cairo. Hours are 9 a.m.-7 p.m. daily (including weekends) through June 21, and 9 a.m.-7 p.m. daily (including weekends and July 4) from June 29-July 6.

Another disaster recovery center will open on Thursday in Junction at Gallatin School, 5175 Route 13.

Jennifer Fuller, WSIU

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Disaster aid to Missouri tops $21 million

Missouri residents have been approved for more than $21 million of federal disaster aid following tornadoes and flooding, according to the Associated Press.

That number is likely to keep rising. The Federal Emergency Management Agency said Monday that more than $12 million has gone to individuals hit by the Joplin tornado.

The rest has gone to people affected by flooding in southeast Missouri, a tornado that struck St. Louis and other severe weather since May 9.

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Twenty-one Southern Illinois counties will receive federal assistance

Governor Pat Quinn says 21 southern Illinois counties are eligible for federal disaster assistance following flooding earlier this year, according to the Associated Press.

State and local governments can seek reimbursements for 75% of their eligible expenses related to flooding and storms that hit southern Illinois in April and May.

In May officials from the Illinois Emergency Management Agency and the Federal Emergency Management Agency met with local governments in nearly two dozen counties. State officials say the review showed that the cost to state and local government was $20 million.

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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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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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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

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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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Red Cross does not need item donations for Joplin tornado victims

CAPE GIRARDEAU, MO (KRCU) - The American Red Cross’ job has gotten a little bit harder this week.

Their Southeast Missouri volunteers are already working closely with those displaced from their homes due to flooding. But as Cheryl Klueppel, the chapter’s Executive Director explains, the group is also reaching out to Joplin area residents affected by the recent tornado.

“Our Red Cross has mobilized volunteers to help families, to be of support, to shelter, provide mental health, health services to families in the Joplin area,” Klueppel said.

Klueppel says the Red Cross is not currently in need of item donations. But those interested in giving other types of aid can make a monetary donation at redcross.org or call 211 to volunteer their time with partnering organizations.

Cara Wilson, KRCU

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Rain complicates planting season

BENTON, MO (KRCU) - Torrential rain and flooding have complicated what should have been a good year for Southeast Missouri farmers.

Commodity prices for corn, wheat, and soy beans remain high. But most farmers have been forced to plant later than normal. Some Bootheel farmers lost entire wheat crops due to water standing on their fields.

David Reinbott is an agriculture business specialist at the University of Missouri Extension in Benton. He says that it’s been a difficult year, but it is still too early to call it a loss.

"Corn has just been delayed. Corn that should have been planted in the end of March or April is now getting planted in mid-May," Reinbott said. "Soy beans that should have been planted two or three weeks ago have not even been put in the ground. So we’ve got everything getting delayed and the profit potential that we’re looking at is starting to fizzle a bit. The potential is still there, but not quite as good as maybe it was a month ago or two."

Reinbott says that it all hinges on the weather and water. If we get a couple of weeks of sun, crops should do well. The picture would be complicated if more rain falls on Southeast Missouri.

Jacob McCleland, KRCU

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Corps to rebuild Birds Point levee

The Army Corps of Engineers says that the Birds Point-New Madrid spillway levee will be restored.

In a letter to Representative Jo Ann Emerson (R-MO), the Assistant Secretary of the Army for Civil Works, Jo-Ellen Darcy, established a timeline for rebuilding the levee system.

In the letter, Darcy said that water should recede within 40 to 60 days without further rainfall. The land will need another 21 to 30 day to dry. After the drying out period, the Corps would make an assessment to determine the extent of restoration.

Representative Emerson called the Birds Point operation, “a deeply painful experience for thousands of people.” She says that the Corps’ commitment to rebuild is the first good news about the levee in a long time.

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Mosquitoes a concern for flooded areas

Residents living in flooded areas have something else to worry about ... lots of mosquitoes.

Areas that have received a lot of rain will likely have to deal with big batches of the bugs.

Illinois State Department of Public Health spokesperson Melaney Arnold says the good news is that these are floodwater mosquitoes ... not the house mosquitoes that often carry the West Nile Virus. Still ... she says the state has already begun surveillance for West Nile in Illinois.

“And we typically start to see either positive bird or mosquito pool come around May 8th is when we saw the first bird test positive last year. So it’s the early part of May that we do start to see West Nile Virus activity. The first human case isn’t generally until around the first of July,” she said.

Arnold says house mosquitoes usually emerge once the waters recede ... and any pools of stagnant water are left ... which is where they like to breed.

Brad Palmer, WSIU

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Illinois officials begin flood assessment

CARBONDALE, IL (WSIU) - Officials from the state and federal levels arrived in southern Illinois Monday to begin documenting damage to homes and businesses from this spring's flooding.

Staff from the Illinois Emergency Management Agency (IEMA), FEMA and the U.S. Small Business Administration say information gathered during the damage assessment will be used by the state of Illinois to support a request for federal assistance.

IEMA director Jonathon Monken says five teams of state and federal officials will conduct damage assessments in about a dozen counties.

"Basically what they are focusing their attention and time on is counties that actually reported having private homes or significant private property damage in the course of the flood," Monken said. "So this is really the phase that we are really working on right now is the individual assistance phase, which is geared specifically towards those private properties."

Monken says he expects the damage assessments to be completed by the end of the week.

He says the assessments will be very thorough.

“They look for a lot of things. The water level in the house. How high it ultimately reached. Whether or not it hit the electrical system or affected the electrical systems. Whether or not basic life support functions are still there, meaning life support in terms of water, electricity, heating, air conditioning, things like that. And then they also look at whether or not there was any structural damage to the home itself,” Monken said.

The documentation of damage comes as the Ohio River continues receding, having threatened Cairo and swamped parts of Metropolis.

The Ohio River's retreat meant that a highway bridge linking Cairo to Wickliffe, Kentucky has reopened, and the curfew in Cairo was lifted Monday.

Governor Pat Quinn issued a state disaster declaration for the southern Illinois flooding on April 25th.

Brad Palmer, WSIU

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Cairo - Wickliffe Bridge Reopens

The Ohio River Bridge between Cairo, Illinois and Wickliffe, Kentucky has now been reopened.

The Kentucky Transportation Cabinet has completed repairs to the bridge which has been out of service since April 26. During the worst of the flooding, water was spilling over the bridge on the Kentucky side.

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Cairo won't crumble from sand boils, geologist says

CARBONDALE, IL (KRCU) - A professor at Southern Illinois University Carbondale says that Cairo, Illinois is not at risk of being overtaken by sand boils.

Dr. Nicholas Pinter is a professor in the Department of Geology at Southern Illinois University Carbondale. He’s an expert on flood hydrology and floodplain management. He says that the land beneath Cairo is not in danger of crumbling apart. The town’s real peril subsided when river levels dropped on the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers.

“They were and should have been worried when the waters were up. This was a major threat to the integrity of those very levees. And it’s a threat that increased as the water levels got higher. Now as the crests have passed, thank goodness here, the immediate threat from those features has subsided,” Pinter said.

Pinter says that the Birds Point floodway had the desired effect of reducing river levels at Cairo and 40 miles upstream. He believes that the Army Corps of Engineers could have opened the floodway earlier, which may have prevented flooding in the southern Illinois community of Olive Branch.

Moving forward, Pinter wants to see less intensive use of the floodway.

“Keep construction, infrastructure, and population out of that floodplain. Agricultural use of that land is absolutely appropriate. And that has been one of the major developments. That land has gone from partially used to very, very intensively used since the designing of the original system,” Pinter said.

Dr. Pinter believes that the levee should be reconstructed. He would like to see more land set aside for floodplains in order to mitigate future flood events.

Jacob McCleland, KRCU

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No camping fees at state parks for flood victims

Missouri State Parks will waive all camping fees for families displaced by recent flooding along the Mississippi River in state-declared disaster counties.

Camping fees will be waived at Trail of Tears State Park and Lake Wappapello State Park. The waiver will apply for 30 days, after which time each situation will be re-evaluated to determine if the stay needs to be extended.

All campsites will be available on a first-come, first-served basis.

People requesting the fee waiver should provide documentation from a governmental or charitable organization certifying that they have been displaced by flooding in a declared county in Missouri.

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Agencies meet with flood victims; Pinhook struggles to be reborn

CHARLESTON, MO (KRCU) - Officials from numerous state agencies visited Charleston, Poplar Bluff, New Madrid, Sikeston, and Caruthersville over two days this week to meet with residents who have been affected by this spring’s record flood.

Agencies provided information on unemployment benefits, how to seek damage compensation, and mental health services, among others.

Debra Tarver met with several agencies at the Community Response Meeting in Charleston. She is from the village of Pinhook - population 24 - which sits in the Birds Point spillway.

Despite government efforts to help rebuild, she’s not sure if Pinhook will ever be reborn.

“I want to. But everybody else is pretty much older. You know, it’s a lot of older people there. I don’t know if the young people would go back there at this point. I just don’t know. Financially, it’s hard to say,” Tarver said.

Governor Jay Nixon announced $25 million in disaster relief money for Mississippi, New Madrid, Butler, Taney, and St. Louis Counties. President Barack Obama has declared the same counties a disaster area.

Jacob McCleland, KRCU

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