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Missouri hopes to work with neighbors to improve Missouri River levees

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Brent Martin, KFEQ

Missouri state officials hope to convince the Army Corps of Engineers to make changes to the Missouri River levee system.

Deputy Director Dru Buntin of the Department of Natural Resources says Missouri is working with Kansas, Nebraska, and Iowa state officials to propose changes to the levee system in an effort to avoid the problems which made the 2019 flood so devastating.

2019 flooding in northwest Missouri/File photo by Brent Martin

“It’s the states’ intention working together to take a regional approach to looking at where are the areas where targeted investment and focus about our approach to flood risk management is going to reap the most benefit,” Buntin tells St. Joseph Post.

Of particular interest is the Missouri River L-536 levee in Atchison and Holt Counties, which breached in five locations in 2019. The Atchison County Levee District has suggested moving the levee back to allow more room for floodwaters. The district also suggests upgrading the levee with a more modern design.

A study commissioned by Missouri Gov. Mike Parson focused on pinch points along the Missouri River, segments that restrict the flow of water creating a greater potential for flooding. The study suggested the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers could alter not just the levees, but where they are built, using setbacks and other moves to restore a more natural floodplain.

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Repair of broken levee system in northwest Missouri hindered by weather

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By BRENT MARTIN, St. Joseph Post

Repair of the broken levee system along the Missouri River has been slow going, as a wet fall and a cold winter has delayed assessment of the damage and construction work.

Emergency Management Specialist Mike Dulin with the Kansas City District of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers says it has been especially slow going north of St. Joseph.

“But in that Holt County area north of St. Joe it’s been a real challenge getting out there and just completing our damage assessments,” Dulin tells St. Joseph Post.

Dulin says even survey crews have had difficulty getting to some levees to assess the damage.

“With everything soggy and frozen the way it is it’s a real challenge to complete those damage assessments,” according to Dulin.

Floodwaters from a swollen Missouri River spilled over the river banks, cutting a path of destruction in northwest Missouri and northeast Kansas truly breathtaking in scope.

“So, overall, we’re looking at a thousand miles of levee system on both sides of the Missouri River and some levees over in Kansas, too,” Dulin says. “I mean, it’s everything, from sod kill and erosion, scour, all the way to breaches being the worst case.”

The Kansas City District of the Corps is working on 67 repair projects, with damage estimated at $100 million. Floodwaters badly damaged 20 federal levees and took out many non-federal levees that are eligible to receive federal money for repairs. That doesn’t even count the damage done to the levee system north of Holt County, from Atchison County to Omaha, which likely will top the KC District total, according to Dulin.

The Corps of Engineers has been able to receive the amount of money needed to make repairs if the weather and conditions finally allow repair to proceed.

Dulin says it has been some time since the Corps faced such a daunting challenge.

“This is the largest levee rehab effort that we’ve seen since 1993,” Dulin says. “So, there’s a very real possibility this could take us up to two years to complete all repairs. So, obviously some repairs will be done much sooner than that, but to fix everything it could take us until the spring of 2021.”

Corps of engineers pledges to work with states on flooding factors

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An officer with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers says the corps is receptive to input from the states in assessing what went wrong this year to spawn the widespread flooding in the lower Missouri River basin.

Officials from Missouri, Kansas, Nebraska, and Iowa are demanding more input into the management of the Missouri River and protection from future flooding.

Governor Mike Parson and some key members of Congress from Missouri have been critical of the corp’s priorities in managing the watersheds that affect their state.

Planning Section Chief John Grothaus in the Corps’ Kansas City office says there are lessons to be learned from this year’s floods.

READ MORE of the story from our affiliate KFEQ.

 

Task force sees cooperation as key to fighting floods

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Federal and state agencies hope a more cooperative effort emerged from the Midwestern floods of last year; an effort that will help communities recover sooner.

Missourians remember the widespread and devastating floods of 1993 and 1995. Northeast Missourians remember being hit hard last year when floodwaters in Iowa traveled down the Mississippi and swamped towns along the way.

Federal and state officials have been meeting ever since that devastating flooding of a year ago, attempting to find non-structural approaches to flood management.

"So that if there was an area that could be taken out of danger and homes re-located if necessary and the floodplain managed in a way that it would minimize risk to people and property, then we were going to try to do that," according to Bob Anderson with the US Army Corps of Engineers .

The Corps, the Federal Emergency Management Agency , the Natural Resources Conservation Service as well as other federal agencies have been meeting with state agencies from various Midwestern states for the past 11 months. The regional Interagency Levee Task Force held its final meeting in St. Louis, though there is talk of continuing the effort to bring various agencies together to not just prepare to fight flooding, but to help devastated communities recover.

Anderson says the task force is focusing on non-structural approaches so it can combat flooding other than building more and higher levees. He says everyone working on the task force understands that whether federal or state, they all need to work better together.

"That’s one of the things we’ve really been working on this last year to improve, just communication, sitting down together and saying, ‘Well, let’s look at this as a total package rather than as individual agencies,’" says Anderson.

Anderson says cooperation is vital in helping communities wrecked by flooding recover.

Download/listen Brent Martin reports (1:15 MP3)

Flooding in Missouri this year more widespread than perceived

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Much attention this year was focused on northeast Missouri when floodwaters from Iowa flowed into the Mississippi and topped levees north of St. Louis. But an official with the Army Corps of Engineers says flooding has been widespread in Missouri for the past two years.

Chief Emergency Manager Jud Kneuvean with the Army Corps of Engineers Kansas City office says Missouri barely escaped a re-enactment of one of the worst disasters in state history:  the flood of 1993.

Many parts of Missouri have experienced their wettest year on record. St. Louis reports a record precipitation so far of 55 inches; records dating back to 1870. The previous record was 1982. 1993 now ranks third in St. Louis.

Kneuvean says much was learned in the wake of the great flood of 1993. Kneuvean says many have overlooked the widespread flooding in Missouri the past two years, flooding which has caused $24 million in damage.

Download/listen Brent Martin reports (:60 MP3)

Levee restoration underway, with eye toward spring

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Flooding A winter of work remains as the Army Corps of Engineers tries to fix what floodwaters broke this past spring.

It wasn’t the flood of ’93, but don’t tell that to residents of northeast Missouri who lost homes, businesses and an entire crop season due to the Easter floods of 2008. Rain swollen rivers up north fed into the Mississippi which kept rising, overtopping and destroying levees from the tip of northeast Missouri to St. Louis. The US Army Corps of Engineers estimates floodwaters this past spring did $25 million damage in the St. Louis District alone. Flood damage was much more extensive and expensive up north in the Rock Island District, which includes the tip of northeast Missouri as well as much of Iowa that suffered severely from flooding.

Representatives of the Corps and other federal agencies met in at the State Emergency Management Agency headquarters in Jefferson City Tuesday. The Regional Interagency Levee Task Force is composed of several federal agencies as well as representatives from Missouri, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana and Wisconsin.

Though the flooding devastated the Mississippi River levee system, Corps of Engineers Major Jason Taliaferro in the St. Louis District says the levees didn’t fail. Taliaferro says the levees held until floodwaters kept rising too high, overtopped them and, finally, breached them.

Federal funding for repairs has been secured. Matching grants also have been secured. Taliaferro is confident the work will be completed in time for farmers to get into the fields next spring.

Download/listen Brent Martin reports (:60 MP3)

Lincoln County gets extra flood recovery help

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Lincoln County is getting an extra $1.4 million in federal aid to repair levees damaged by flooding in June and July. The governor’s office has announced the award which is in addition to the $6 million given the state by the US Army Corps of Engineers for levee repair in the county. The new money comes in the form of Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) funds which will be spread among four levee districts and two drainage districts.

Corps proposes plan to better protect upper Mississippi

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Next time, the US Army Corps of Engineers might allow farmland to be flooded, on purpose.

The Corps has devised a plan to prevent the massive flooding that took out cities and towns, wiped out crops and devastated the upper Mississippi River earlier this year. The plan would cost $3.7 billion. It would have to be approved and funded by Congress to take effect.

The plan would construct stronger and higher levees to protect the cities along the upper Mississippi. It also would buy out farmland that would be allowed to flood during high water to take pressure off the levees. Farmers would have to be willing to sell. The farm could be used to grow crops during dry years.

A spokesman for the Corps, Bob Anderson, says the Corps learned much after the great flood of 1993, a little more two years later during the flood of 1995 and even more this year. He says the main lesson brought home in dramatic fashion this year was to watch the Mississippi River tributaries more closely. Anderson says they swelled to a point that caused the Mississippi to rise much faster than anticipated. That made it difficult to know where to station volunteer sand-bagging crews to keep the river from overflowing into homes and businesses.

Anderson says the $3.7 billion price tag might seem steep, but is worth it to prevent the widespread damage that occurred this year. Flooding along the Mississippi in Iowa, Illinois and northeast Missouri caused $15 billion in damage, nearly as much damage as caused by the great flood of 1993.

Anderson reaches even farther back in history to make the case for the investment. He points out that extensive work along the lower Mississippi basin took place after the great flood of 1927, which killed 500 people. Anderson says that tragedy woke up Congress to the danger extreme flooding posed. 

Download/listen Brent Martin reports (:60 MP3)

Emergency worker at Winfield says morale still high, despite breach

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An emergency worker at Winfield says the volunteers and workers there have responded admirably, despite the crushing news this morning that floodwaters breached the last in tact levee in Lincoln County.

Brad Farber is coordinating the American Red Cross emergency response in Lincoln County. He spoke with the Missourinet from the 24-hour emergency shelter the Red Cross has established at Winfield High School.

Farber says the breach came as a surprise to many as a massive sandbag effort had kept the Mississippi River from overrunning Winfield, as well as Old Monroe. The National Guard had responded and teamed with volunteers to shore up the Pin Oak levee. The Pin Oak was actually the secondary levee, pressed into front-line service when the primary levee was overtopped and breached days ago.

Floodwaters breached the levee at the south end, according to the Army Corps of Engineers at about 5:20 Friday morning. The Corps states the levee sustained water levels higher than it was designed for and for a much longer period than anyone had hoped. The breach came as the Mississippi was finally reaching a crest and was expected to stabilize over the weekend before slowly receding.

Farber says residents are holding their breath, now relegated to becoming spectators, watching to see where the floodwaters flow. The floodwaters threaten between 100 and 120 homes in Winfield. It appears they might not make their way to Old Monroe as first feared. Despite the breach, Farber says morale remains high among the volunteers and workers. He says it seems that the worst of times brings out the best in people. 

Download/listen Brent Martin interviews Brad Farber of Red Cross about Winfield levee breach (4 min MP3)

Workers keep battling floodwaters as the Mississippi begins to recede

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Floodwaters along the Mississippi River keep the pressure on battered levees, with tension rising among those working non-stop each and every time it rains.

Brad Farber, supervisor of the St. Charles County American Red Cross Service Center, says much work has kept a vulnerable levee at Winfield in tact. Farber says it is believed the Pin Oak levee will hold. The Pin Oak levee is the secondary levee in Winfield, pressed into service when floodwaters broke through the primary levee. It is protecting about 100 homes. The US Army Corps of Engineers has been keeping a close watch on the Pin Oak levee ever since. Members of the National Guard have been helping volunteers pile sandbags on the levee to help it hold.

The National Weather Service has left unchanged its prediction the Mississippi River will crest late tomorrow or Saturday at 37.5 feet at Winfield. That would be just over two feet below the record flood of 1993. Even once the river crests, it will remain at 36 feet for a few days before it drops slowly, keeping a lot of pressure on the levees protecting Winfield, Clarksville and Elsberry.

Work by the National Guard is credited for saving a mobile home park in St. Charles. A sandbag operation fortified a levee north of the park. National Guard members have been deployed to West Alton to fill sandbags there. Officials have called for more volunteers to fill sandbags for the West Alton levee.

The Red Cross is asking for donations. The national disaster relief fund has been nearly depleted from response to major disaster this year.


Download/listen Brent Martin interviews Brad Farber (7:18 MP3)