Crews from the Missouri Department of Transportation are busy with roadway flooding, mainly in southern counties. Chris Engelbrecht, the director of MoDOT’s Safety & Emergency Management Division says by late Sunday afternoon, approximately 150 roadways were closed.
MODOT’s list of state roads closed because of flooding
“We’ve seen a lot of impacts, of course, in the West Plains area with US 63, which continues to be closed at this point. There are just so many roadways, whether it’s flooded routes or some of the Missouri numbered routes, and even a lot of the county roads that are impacted in the entire south to the southeast portion of the state,” Engelbrecht told Missourinet.
“So we’re continually monitoring the roadways. Additionally, pumping a few areas trying to keep some of the roadways open as long as we can, and then also doing some preliminary damage assessments. Right now too, we do have some pretty extensive damage on some of the routes,” he said. ” We are starting to see some of the the rivers now rise, which are creating some extended duration impacts in some of those areas and we expect those.”
Engelbrecht says crews are active about 24 hours a day throughout the flooding duration to man barricades, get the damage assessments done quickly, and to make emergency repairs to get roadways back open. Their continued warning to drivers is to avoid repair crews and moving water because the condition of the roadway is hidden.
Missouri Task Force One reported aiding with two roadway water rescues in the region Saturday and Sunday.
MoDOT’s Traveler Information Map for updated road and traffic conditions.