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Mississippi River flood waters receding in Hannibal, northeast Missouri must assess damage

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Riggs (right) with Mayor James Hark and Gov. Mike Parson (far left) during a recent disaster briefing

The Mississippi River has been receding in Hannibal, where the levee held and the town was protected. The river topped at one foot shy of the record flooding in 1993.

After hundreds of volunteers, National Guard troops and inmates helped flood-threatened areas in northeastern Missouri, residents are expressing their thanks and relief.  (See coverage from TV partner WGEM)

Now the next step: the damage must be assessed and cleaned up. State Representative Louis Riggs, R-Hannibal, tells Missourinet “the damages are considerable.”

“The cleanup itself is the easy part, assessing the damage is not.”

This will be considered the second major flooding event for the state, and a second, separate disaster declaration and federal aid request.

“The process itself is rather burdensome,” Riggs says, “and involves crunching numbers, authenticating them and six to nine months, even up to a year.”

For farmers, the harvest is missed or cannot get down the river.

River traffic is slowly returning, but not the most important water transportation to this area: barges to carry grain to market.

“I have not seen any barges on the Mississippi now for months, Riggs says.  “Hundreds of thousands of some of the best acreage in the world will not be producing this year so that is one set of damages to sort out.”

In the meantime, Riggs and Hannibal residents are looking to the river to relinquish some ground for something to celebrate.

“We’ve been told that we can expect to be down to normal flood stage as early as June 29, depending on rainfall, so probably close to July 1. July 4th is the biggest event of the year, so it would be nice to have our riverfront back by then,” Riggs adds.

Medical marijuana patients in Missouri can apply for the drug earlier than planned

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The Missouri Department of Health and Senior will take applications for patient and caregivers on June 28, six days ahead of the July 4 deadline.

Patients and caregivers must visit medicalmarijuana.mo.gov to apply or to preview the necessary information and forms. At this time, DHSS will accept physician certifications as an attachment to a patient’s application rather than directly from a physician. Certifications cannot be more than 30 days old.

Patient and caregiver registration fees are $25, and patient (in-home) cultivation registration fees are $100.

No medical marijuana facilities will be licensed until early 2020.

River conservation group: “illegally over-built levees” contribute to Upper Mississippi River levee breach

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According to the organization American Rivers, a levee breach in West Quincy was aggravated by “illegally over-built levees downstream and across the river.”

Union Township Levee Breach

In a statement, the national river conservation and protection group says, “The levee is at a ‘choke point’ in the river where so much of the floodplain is blocked by levees that the river has no room to spread out when it floods. The Union Township Levee is surrounded by illegally over-built levees downstream and across the river. The actions of the neighboring levee districts to build up their levees without the requisite permits and approvals likely pushed additional water onto the Union Township Levee, contributing to the breach.”

Olivia Dorothy, associate director for the Upper Mississippi River Basin with American Rivers, is calling on “regional leaders to support the development of a basin-wide flood risk management strategy that puts public safety first.”

The group classifies the Upper Mississippi River is among America’s Most Endangered Rivers® of 2019 due to the threats of illegal levee development and climate change.

Levee breached in southern Howard County

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photo: LG Patterson, 93.9The Eagle

A levee in the southern part of the county breached late Friday morning. Even more road closures and property damage were expected in the Boonville, New Franklin, and Rocheport area.

Hundreds of roads are closed in the state, and it may stay that way for a while. See MoDot’s latest list here. Spur 240 was one of the newer closures as of Friday morning, between Highway 40 and Route BB in Rocheport. Evacuations continue in parts of towns like New Franklin and Brunswick.

Sandbagging efforts continue in Missouri River towns like Rocheport and Hartsburg to fight back the flood.

Read more at 93.9 The Eagle, our Columbia affiliate.

Gov. Parson press conference on Planned Parenthood lawsuit, license deadline is Friday (VIDEOS)

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Gov. Mike Parson says the state is not treating Planned Parenthood in St. Louis differently than any other health care facility. He says health violations and deficiences were cited by DHSS months ago.
According to DHSS, “These concerns are not limited to, but include: 1) violations of Missouri law; 2) violations of applicable Missouri regulations; 3) standard care for patient safety as evidenced by, but not limited to, at least one incident in which patient safety was gravely compromised; 4) failed surgical abortions in which patients remained pregnant; 5) concerns about quality control and communication with a contracted pathology lab; and 6) failure to obtain informed consent.”

Parson took questions from the press:

More than 300 roads closed in flooding across Missouri (Links to maps)

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“Every region of our state is affected by flooding,” says Becky Allmeroth, the Missouri Department of Transportation’s Chief Safety and Operations Officer.

And conditions are changing rapidly.

There are currently more than 300 roads in Missouri that are closed due to flooding, including:

  • Interstate 29 at the Missouri/Iowa border due to flooding in Iowa
  • U.S. Route 54 at Louisiana
  • U.S. Route 36 west of Bevier at the Chariton River in Macon County
  • I-29 traffic is being rerouted at U.S. Route 71 (mile marker 57). Motorists should expect delays and should choose a different route at their earliest possible turn-off point. I-29 detour information is as follows:  Kansas City area thru traffic – use I-35 to Iowa. St. Joseph area thru traffic – use U.S. Route 71 north
    Local traffic is able to utilize I-29 to reach their homes and businesses by either going north on U.S. Route 71 and west on U.S. Route 59 or northbound I-229 to northbound I-29.
  • Amtrak’s Missouri River Runner train service has also been suspended until further notice.

Link to the Traveler Information Map

Link to the Current Flood Information list