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Northern Missouri congressman focusing on navigation and flood control (AUDIO)

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A congressman who represents northern Missouri describes the Port of St. Joseph as a major economic engine, saying farmers up and down the Missouri River depend on it to get grain to market.

U.S. Rep. Sam Graves, R-Tarkio, (right) speaks to TransPort 360 CEO Bill Becker at the Port of St. Joseph on September 1, 2020 (photo courtesy of Congressman Graves’ Facebook page)

U.S. Rep. Sam Graves, R-Tarkio, met separately last week with both Missouri Farm Bureau and the Coalition to Protect the Missouri River in St. Joseph, and says both groups understand the importance of navigation and flood control along the Missouri.

“Navigation is vitally important to folks that want to protect the river and to be able to use the river for commerce, and we’re seeing a lot of opportunities in St. Joseph and all along the river for that matter,” Graves says.

He also says farmers up and down the river depend on the Port of St. Joseph to get fertilizer products to their fields.

Graves, the ranking Republican on the U.S. House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, also traveled to northeast Missouri last week. He says levee districts along the Mississippi River are facing many challenges as they work to rebuild after the flood of 2019.

He says residents in that area are vulnerable.

“It makes it very hard to go back in and try to rebuild your house or redo your house when you’ve got the opportunity that it could flood again,” says Graves.

Northeast Missouri saw major flooding in 2019, and the Missouri National Guard’s 35th Brigade was brought in to assist along the Mississippi River in Clarksville.

Missouri Farm Bureau says more than 1.4 million acres of farmland in the state went unplanted in 2019, due to flooding.

During an interview with Missourinet, Congressman Graves also says the U.S. Post Office is critical for his rural district, which has a large elderly population. Graves was one of 26 House Republicans on Capitol Hill who voted for the recent $25 billion Post Office bill.

“I’m a big believer in six-day (mail) delivery and making sure that folks are able to get their prescriptions or whatever it is that is coming in the mail,” Graves says.

President Donald Trump (R) has blasted the post office bill, describing it as a waste of money.

Graves represents 36 counties across northern Missouri, from river to river. The district has more square miles than nine U.S. states. It includes St. Joseph, Bethany, Chillicothe, Hannibal and Clarksville.

Click here to listen to Brian Hauswirth’s full interview with U.S. Rep. Sam Graves, R-Tarkio, which was recorded on September 4, 2020:

Copyright © 2020 · Missourinet

Missouri lawmaker: a casino would do well along the Osage River, if it’s done right

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A proposed constitutional amendment that would authorize a riverboat casino near the Lake of the Ozarks could be heading to the Missouri House floor soon, after being approved by two committees.

State Rep. Rocky Miller, R-Lake Ozark, speaks on the Missouri House floor in Jefferson City on May 17, 2019 (file photo courtesy of Tim Bommel at House Communications)

The proposal from State Rep. Rocky Miller, R-Lake Ozark, would authorize a boat on the Osage River, between the Bagnell Dam and the Missouri River.

“All (the bill) it really does is put out to a vote of the people adding the Osage River to the possibility of getting a license, if one becomes available in the future,” Miller says.

Currently, riverboat gambling in Missouri is only allowed along the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers. The Missouri Gaming Commission regulates casino gambling.

Missouri’s 13 riverboat casino licenses are all currently taken. It’s capped at 13 as a result of Proposition A, which was approved by voters in 2008. Proposition A also repealed loss limits and increased the casino gambling tax from 20 to 21 percent.

Miller has filed House Joint Resolution 87, which is a proposed constitutional amendment. He tells Missourinet that a casino would do well along the Osage River, if it’s done right.

“It has to be where it’s a benefit to the community and to the state,” says Miller. “And the way to ensure that is to make sure it goes through the legislative process, and that’s what we’re doing here today,” he said during a recent Statehouse interview.

Miller’s proposal was approved by the House Special Committee on Government Oversight on a 3-2 vote. It was approved by the Rules Committee on a 6-1 vote.

Copyright © 2020 · Missourinet

Missouri’s Luetkemeyer and Parson warn about possible spring flooding (AUDIO)

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A Missouri congressman whose district includes the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers is worried about possible flooding again this spring.

U.S. Rep. Blaine Luetkemeyer, R-St. Elizabeth, spoke in Jefferson City on February 17, 2020 (photo from Missourinet’s Brian Hauswirth)

U.S. Rep. Blaine Luetkemeyer, R-St. Elizabeth, expressed his concerns during an interview with Missourinet this week in Jefferson City. Luetkemeyer’s district includes Jefferson City, Hermann, Washington and St. Charles.

“I know they didn’t get as much water out of the reservoirs up north as they wanted, so that’s a bad combination,” Luetkemeyer says. “Too much water already is in storage.”

Luetkemeyer, who serves on the Mississippi River Flood Valley Association, says it’s time for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to come up with a plan for the Missouri River. He says a plan is needed, noting the state saw record flooding in 2019.

“And you start from St. Louis and go all the way back to Gavins Point, and working with the Corps to have them sit down and do the analysis of what it would take,” says Luetkemeyer.

He says a plan has been in place for 80 years involving the Mississippi River, between St. Louis and New Orleans. Luetkemeyer emphasizes that the plan works.

Congressman Luetkemeyer has met with Missouri Governor Mike Parson (R) and members of the state’s congressional delegation to discuss the flooding issue. Luetkemeyer says it’s a bipartisan issue.

As for the governor, he says President Donald Trump shares his concerns about possible flooding again this spring along the Missouri River. Parson tells Missourinet that he spoke to the president about the issue a few weeks ago.

“He seemed to be engaged on that, he said that he would try to help with that, so that was very encouraging for him to be talking about that,” Parson says.

Parson and the governors of neighboring Iowa, Kansas and Nebraska have met with the Corps of Engineers three times to discuss what needs to be done differently in the future.

The governor’s proposed budget sets aside $4 million in disaster recovery funds.

Click here to listen to the full interview between Missourinet’s Brian Hauswirth and U.S. Rep. Blaine Luetkemeyer, R-St. Elizabeth, which was recorded on February 17, 2020 at Jefferson City’s Capitol Plaza Hotel:

Copyright © 2020 · Missourinet

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.

WWII minesweeper sunk at St. Louis 20 years ago today

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She received two battle stars for her service in World War II and was credited with clearing eighty-two mines. She patrolled the waters around the Okinawa island chain during the struggle to control it in 1945, and helped clear the waters off Japan and Korea ahead of occupation after the war. Now, she lies on her side in the Mississippi River, defeated by the Great Flood of 1993.

The wreck of the Inaugural lies on its port side in the Mississippi River about a half-a-mile south of the Poplar Street Bridge. (Photo courtesy, the National Historic Landmarks program)

The wreck of the Inaugural lies on its port side in the Mississippi River about a half-a-mile south of the Poplar Street Bridge. (Photo courtesy, the National Historic Landmarks program)

She is the minesweeper Inaugural, brought to St. Louis in 1968 just months before the Arch was inaugurated, to be a museum ship. During her time on the Riverfront she was joined at various times by restaurant boats, showboats and even a replica of Columbus’ ship the Santa Maria for a brief time.

20 years ago today when the Mississippi reached 49.58 feet, more than 19 feet above flood stage, the Inaugural broke loose from her moorings at about 10:45 in the evening. She and three other vessels housing a Burger King, a Taco Bell and a heliport, floated down the river.

They hit the Poplar Street Bridge. Historian at the Jefferson Expansion Memorial, Bob Moore, picks up the story.

The Inaugural while on display as a museum ship on the Mississippi Riverfront in St. Louis. (Photo courtesy, the National Historic Landmarks program)

The Inaugural while on display as a museum ship on the Mississippi Riverfront in St. Louis. (Photo courtesy, the National Historic Landmarks program)

“The police actually closed the bridge for public safety reasons about 11:20 in the evening. They said that the bridge would be closed for several hours at the time, which it was, but the boat broke free of its hangup on the bridge.”

The heliport wound up on the Illinois side, the Taco Bell sank and the Inaugural and Burger King boat were corralled by the Coast Guard.

The Inaugural was pushed to the Missouri side of the River about a half-a-mile south of the Poplar Street Bridge and left there. On the morning of September 23 she was reported to be listing to her port (left) side and by that afternoon she was on the bottom of the Mississippi where she remains today.Moore says it’s a shame.

The Inaugural lies on its side in the Mississippi River about a half-a-mile from the Poplar Street Bridge in St. Louis. (Image courtesy, Google Maps)

The Inaugural lies on its side in the Mississippi River about a half-a-mile from the Poplar Street Bridge in St. Louis. (Image courtesy, Google Maps)

“She was a really nice ship in a great state of repair and a great example of that type of ship, and a reminder really of the bravery of all those sailors and officers who fought in World War II.”

Moore says most of the things that could be removed from the ship have been, either by salvagers or thieves, and today there is little hope that the ship will be salvaged. She lost designation as a National Historic Landmark in 2001.

“There may be portions of the ship that might be preserved that people might see at some point. I’m not sure who is salvaging it and whether they might be on display someplace, but the ship itself I think is a loss.”

Moore is among those who remember visiting the Inaugural when it was a museum ship.”I’m always disappointed when a piece of history is lost. It really was a shame. It was an unavoidable accident that was caused by nature, but it’s still a loss.”

An attempt was mounted to scrap the hull when Mississippi River levels were low in January, but they rose and the effort was halted.

The Inaugural was one of two remaining Admirable-class minesweepers. A sister ship, the Hazard, is the only surviving vessel of that class and remains on display in Omaha, Nebraska.

More information on the Inaugural including listings of the sailors who served aboard her and many photos can be found here.

Corps closes Mississippi River at St. Louis

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The Corps of Engineers has closed about a 5-mile stretch of the Mississippi River at St. Louis due to high water levels. The Corps is barring River traffic from the McKinley Bridge to the Merchant’s Bridge.

The River at St. Louis has reached 40 feet, about the 5th or 6th largest flood in the city’s history and considered a once-in-twenty-five-years event. Engineering and Construction Chief Dave Busse says it could be pushed higher by rain later this week.

“The rainfall can always be less or more than what the National Weather Service is forecasting, but we see nothing now that would give us a view that we would be in a ’93-type situation.”

The River crested at 49.6 feet in the flood of 1993.

Upper Mississippi River Chief Ryan Christensen says the River isn’t just unsafe for barge traffic.

“As of right now we’re urging all people on the Illinois River, the Upper Mississippi River and the Missouri River … recreational traffic … to stay off the River. It is not a good time to be on the River. There are high currents, there is a lot of drifts, most of the boat ramps are probably underwater right now anyway, so if you’re thinking of recreational traffic please shift it off of the main Rivers.”

Busse says the River is also near record height at Cape Girardeau.

“We’re about the 10th highest, and the forecast from the National Weather Service would put us about the fifth highest, and still around a 50-year event. A major event, but nowhere near 1973 or 1993.”

Barge associations to Obama: order more water to save Mississippi River barge traffic

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Two river barge trade groups say barge traffic on the Mississippi River could come to a halt next week if someone doesn’t put more water in the River.

Waterways Council, Inc. is one of two groups that says as early as next week there won’t be enough water in the Mississippi River for the towboats that move barges to operate. It has joined the American Waterways Operators in calling on President Barack Obama to act to avoid an effective closure.

Two unions say after next week, barges on the Mississippi River will have to remain tied up until as late as April unless the Corps of Engineers releases more water into the Missouri River or the Midwest gets lots more rain.

Two unions say after next week, barges on the Mississippi River will have to remain tied up until as late as April unless the Corps of Engineers releases more water into the Missouri River or the Midwest gets lots more rain.

Waterways Council President Mike Toohey says for every 60 days barges stay off the Mississippi, 20,000 jobs and $130 million in wages are threatened and $7 billion in commodities are stranded.

“The inputs to manufacturing such a chemicals, which are a huge component of transportation on the waterways, simply don’t reach the manufacturing facilities … because there really is no other alternative to water transportation. The railroads do not have the water side deliver access that is necessary and we do not have enough trucks to take up the slack.”

Corps of Engineers spokesman Mike Petersen agrees levels are likely to get low enough to keep towboats off the River, but says the Corps can not release more water.

“The Missouri River can’t operate for the support of Mississippi River navigation just by their legal authorities, but the more important question is that if we start releasing water, we’re looking at year one of a drought. We don’t know how many years this drought is going to go on and it’s tough making decisions with water resources in a good year, but we have to keep our eyes on the long-term as far as what we’re going to do with water in any of the Corps reservoirs across the nation if we’re going to be dealing with a persistent drought.”

Toohey says the shut down could last until April unless some significant rain comes to break the drought and raise River levels.

The unions say towboats need a nine-foot draft to operate, and Toohey says very few vessels on the Mississippi can operate with anything more shallow. The unions say the River will be down to 8 feet next week.

Petersen says the Corps is already doing all it can.

“We actually just started releasing some additional water from Carlyle Lake. This would be the second kind of burst of water from Carlyle to support navigation through that reach of River at Thebes (Illinois) … that’ll reach Thebes at about the same time that the forecasts expect us to reach critically low levels.”

Petersen adds, “but ultimately … it’s going to take a whole lot of rain to get us back to normal.”