Missouri was hit hard by massive flooding in 1993, 2011, and 2019. A study underway by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is exploring ways to prevent flooding ahead of time.
Senior Program Manager Colleen Roberts said the study was launched following demands from the governors of Missouri, Kansas, Nebraska, and Iowa in wake of the 2019 flood. Northwest Missouri’s Holt County was especially hit hard in 2019.
“Holt County is the area of repeated damage, like they have been hard hit multiple times. The levees up there are varying levels of protection, so it’s not consistent there,” Roberts told Missourinet affiliate KFEQ in St. Joseph. “There (are) pinch points or choke points where the water really constricts.”
Some lowlands in Holt County remained underwater for more than half of 2019, from the spring months through October. The study is reviewing how some flood prevention efforts may have backfired.
“As people have continued to build up levees, it’s constricted the river more,” Roberts said. “There’s bridges and other things that it’s not just the levees, but continuing to build the levees higher on the bank of the river is just adding to some of those pinch points.”
The study’s foundation was laid in part by four Midwestern states, including Missouri.
“The four states — Missouri, Iowa, Nebraska and Kansas — they developed a working group during the flood event to figure out how to work through the flood and what they could do in the aftermath, to do something different,” Roberts said.
Roberts calls it the most intense study of Missouri River management since the levees first went up in the 1950’s. It focuses on the lower Missouri, from Sioux City, Iowa to its mouth north of St. Louis. She hopes to have a rough draft of the study ready next year and final completion by 2026.
Copyright © 2024 · Missourinet