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Inmates sandbagging again in northeast Missouri’s Clarksville; Mississippi River to crest there Sunday

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(Missourinet Quincy affiliate WGEM and Louisiana affiliate KJFM contributed to this story)

The National Weather Service (NWS) in St. Louis says the Mississippi River at northeast Missouri’s Hannibal is cresting today at about 28.4 feet.

The Mississippi River in northeast Missouri’s Clarksville (file photo courtesy of Clarksville city website)

Missourinet Quincy affiliate WGEM reports about 80 volunteers are back in Hannibal today, filling sandbags for the community and for the Hannibal levee.

Resident Shane Bramblett tells WGEM it’s a community effort.

“So we’re just trying to fill some sand bags to help support levees. We’re probably adding one (to) about two feet to levees right now, so Hannibal, we’ve got a lot of sandbags to fill so we’re trying to get as much support as we can,” Bramblett says.

Marion County highway crews have also brought sandbags to Hannibal to assist in the effort.

Meantime, massive flooding in northeast Missouri’s Clarksville has prompted the state Department of Corrections (DOC) to send more than two dozen inmates to help sandbag in the river town.

DOC spokeswoman Karen Pojmann tells Missourinet that 25 female offenders from the Vandalia prison are currently sandbagging in Clarksville.

The NWS in St. Louis says the Mississippi River at Clarksville is expected to crest at 36.2 feet on Sunday.

Clarksville is a town of about 450 residents.

Missourinet Louisiana affiliate KJFM Radio reports Highway 79 in closed in numerous locations in Louisiana, Clarksville and Elsberry. KJFM also reports Highway 54 at the Champ Clark bridge near Louisiana is also closed.

The flooding is also impacting mail service across northeast Missouri.

The United States Postal Service (USPS) says post offices in La Grange and Clarksville have temporarily closed, due to flooding.

The USPS says mail service in La Grange is temporarily being rerouted to Canton, while mail service in Clarksville is temporarily being rerouted to Louisiana.

Copyright © 2019 · Missourinet

UPDATE: Weather Service finds evidence of ten tornadoes in Missouri from storms Monday

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Update 05/22/2013 3:50pm: Evidence of a tenth tornado during Monday night’s storms has been found 3 miles east of Shell Knob in Southwest Missouri. The Weather Service believes that tornado touched down at about 7:50 Monday night. It uprooted and damaged trees in a 1.4 mile damage path 200 yards wide. Winds reached about 110 miles per hour, making it an EF-1 on the Enhanced Fujita scale.

Update 05/22/2013 2:00pm: The National Weather Service has found evidence of another EF-1 tornado that touched down Monday at about 8:05, about 3 miles north-northwest of Reeds Spring in Southwest Missouri. The storm uprooted trees in a damage path 100 yards wide and 1.4 miles long. Winds reached about 90 miles per hour.

Another EF-0 tornado touched down 2 miles north of Reeds Spring causing some tree damage. Its winds ranged from 80 to 85 miles per hour.

A survey team has also been sent to the Shell Knob area to investigate damage there.

UPDATE 05/22/2013 noon: The National Weather Service has confirmed a tornado did touchdown southwest of Hannibal Monday night. That tornado uprooted and snapped trees and tore the tin roofing off of a barn as it passed about a mile south of Hannibal Regional Medical Center, before dissipating.  The tornado’s winds reached about 90 miles per hour, making it an EF-1.

The Weather Service says the same storm caused considerable wind damage in Hannibal. A portion of the roof on a building at Hannibal-LaGrange College was torn off and a brick building in downtown Hannibal had a wall collapse and part of its roof torn off. Another building on the south side of Hannibal also had part of its roof torn off, as well as other tree damage and broken windows.

Another EF-1 tornado crossed over from Oklahoma into Missouri Monday afternoon. The tornado came within about a half-mile from Seneca, snapping and uprooting trees in a damage path 600 yards wide and less than a mile into Missouri. Its wind speeds reached between 95 and 100 mph.

The Weather Service says these reports are not final and surveys do continue.

UPDATE:  The Weather Service has confirmed a third, EF-1 tornado touchdown 7 miles west of Lamar. The storm destroyed a couple of outbuildings and damged trees along a damage path nearly 7 miles long and up to 100 yards wide. Wind speeds are estimated to have reached 95 miles per hour.

National Weather Service assessment teams have confirmed five tornado touchdowns in Missouri from storms yesterday.

The National Weather Service's Pleasant Hill (Kansas City) office tweeted this picture, saying this damage is from a "likely EF-1 tornado" in Johnson and Pettis Counties. Its assessment team has since confirmed an EF-1 tornado did touch down in those areas.

The National Weather Service’s Pleasant Hill (Kansas City) office tweeted this picture, saying this damage is from a “likely EF-1 tornado” in Johnson and Pettis Counties. Its assessment team has since confirmed an EF-1 tornado did touch down in those areas.

Tornadoes with winds topping out at between 90 and 100 miles per hour caused damage near Knob Noster in western Missouri and near Carthage in southwest Missouri. Trees were uprooted, power lines were downed and outbuildings destroyed near Carthage. Those tornadoes rate EF-1 on the Enhanced Fujita Scale.

Tornadoes producing winds of about 85 miles per hour touched down in southwest Missouri near Lockwood, where a grocery store roof was damaged, trees were uprooted and a car port was thrown, and in the Orleans Trail public use area near Stockton, damaging a barn and several trees. Another weak tornado left a 100-yard wide path of minor damage near Gravois Mills in central Missouri, uprooting trees and causing minor structural damage. Those tornadoes rate EF-0.

An assessment team has determined that damage in Hannibal was not caused by a tornado. Instead, it says it found evidence of straight line winds gusting an estimated 80 to 100 miles an hour.