missouri flooding Archives

For some northwest Missouri farmers, this flood could wipe out a crop…and an income

May 9, 2019 By Missourinet Contributor

Some farmers in northwest Missouri face the very real possibility of not planting a crop this year due to the flood. Congressman Sam Graves, who lives near Tarkio, says he has heard from many farmers who still have fields under water and no prospect of getting a crop in the ground this year.

Photo courtesy of KFEQ

“You have no income. There will be no income for folks that are farming along the river,” Graves says. “They can’t put a crop in. So, okay, you erase a year’s worth of income. What do you do? You want to talk about stress and frustration, that’s what you hear.”

The prospect of no crop and, thus, no income this year grows more realistic as rain comes down and floodwaters fail to recede. Fields ruined by the flood are not likely to drain and dry out in time for planting.

Graves says older farmers likely have banked enough savings to survive the year.

“But, a lot of younger farmers, they aren’t in that position and the fact of the matter is the machinery payments continue, the farm payments continue, the house payment continues regardless of whether or not you have income or not and that puts people in a real bind when you’re dealing with that, so yeah, it could put people under,” according to Graves.

A disaster aid package continues to work its way through Congress. Whether it will be enough to offset the losses from this year’s flood remains to be seen. Graves does note that the package likely will contain some money to compensate for the loss of stored grain, ruined when floodwaters surrounded, then collapsed grain bins in Missouri, Kansas, Nebraska, and Iowa.

By Brent Martin of Missourinet affiliate KFEQ in St. Joseph

U.S. House to debate disaster aid to help states, including flood-stricken Missouri

May 7, 2019 By Alisa Nelson

The U.S. House is expected to bring up a $17 billion federal disaster relief package this week that involves helping Midwestern farmers, including in Missouri. Northern Missouri Republican Congressman Sam Graves tells Missourinet affiliate KWIX in Moberly the plan addresses several things.

Congressman Sam Graves

“The biggest thing that’s going to affect us is obviously getting the dollars in there to fix the levy breaches so that we can close those up,” says Graves.

The measure includes $1.5 billion for construction projects intended to reduce flood risks, $1 billion for Community Development Block Grant funding for rebuilding efforts, and $500 million to assist farmers and ranchers whose land was damaged.

“After the disaster declaration, we are obviously going through the process of trying to get a disaster package put together, which is stalled in the Senate. We are working on it in the House now. Hopefully we are going to be able to come to a compromise,” says Graves.

Democrats and Republicans have been butting heads about the bill because Democrats want more money to help Puerto Rico rebuild from 2017 hurricanes. Republicans say Puerto Rico has been given enough aid.

Graves’ district includes northern Missouri counties along the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers.

Gov. Parson makes official federal disaster request, congressional delegation urges prompt action

April 24, 2019 By Missourinet Contributor

Governor Mike Parson wants President Donald Trump to approve a major disaster declaration for Missouri for federal assistance for 13 counties after historic flood levels caused an estimated $25 million in damage to infrastructure and emergency response costs eligible for federal assistance.

Some areas cannot be assessed until flood waters recede, so the governor says he expects the request to be expanded to include additional counties.

Parson is requesting Public Assistance for Andrew, Atchison, Buchanan, Carroll, Chariton, Holt, Mississippi, New Madrid, Pemiscot, Perry, Platte, Ray, and Ste. Genevieve. If approved, local governments and qualifying nonprofit agencies may seek federal assistance for reimbursement of emergency response and recovery costs, including repair and replacement costs for damaged roads, bridges, and other public infrastructure.

Parson is also requesting federal individual assistance for five Missouri counties for temporary housing, housing repairs, replacement of damaged belongings and vehicles and other qualifying flood-related expenses. Those counties are Andrew, Atchison, Buchanan, Holt, and Platte.

The governor is also requesting that the U.S. Small Business Administration assist businesses, homeowners, and renters in these counties with low-interest loans. Those affected by the flooding are encouraged to continue documenting and photographing the damage and keeping all receipts.

The governor says he is “confident federal assistance will be forthcoming,” but the state’s bipartisan congressional delegation sent a joint letter to President Trump asking for his prompt action in granting federal aid.

“The severity and magnitude of the flooding has [sic] caused several communities to be evacuated and has resulted in the destruction of homes, farms, and businesses,” the delegation wrote. “We respectfully request your prompt action to ensure that these communities receive the immediate support needed to respond to the disaster. Along with our fellow Missourians, we appreciate your attention to this request and stand ready to assist in any way possible.”

Governors of Missouri, Iowa, Nebraska meet with Army Corps officials to discuss flood-prevention

April 4, 2019 By Alisa Nelson

Three governors feeling the pain of major flooding recently are calling on the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to change its management of the Missouri River. The governors of Missouri, Nebraska and Iowa met Wednesday in Iowa with Corps and Federal Emergency Management officials to talk about growing flooding problems. At a press conference Wednesday afternoon in Council Bluffs, Governor Mike Parson says something needs to change.

Three governors at meeting with Army Corps and FEMA officials (photo from @GovParsonMO twitter account)

“For far too long, we’ve had these incidents occur and we’ve had meeting after meeting, but it seems to be the same results all the time. I think it’s time that we need some straight up answers from the Corps of Engineers of how they’re managing the river,” says Parson.

Northwest and southeast Missouri have especially been hit hard by recent flooding. Parson has made a couple of trips to northwest Missouri to view the damage. About half of Nebraska has been devastated by flood waters.

“First of all, we’ve got to find out just kind of what happened. I think we are still looking for those answers,” says Parson. “But more importantly, what can we do in the short-term and what can we do in the long-term. We’re still not out of the woods yet. We still have got water coming out, snow melt and ice coming out, plus spring rains that could really affect us.”

Parson, a Republican, says the management of the river is key to the citizens of each state.

“When you look at the states that are involved here of the Missouri River, it has a huge impact on the United States of what it is we do,” Parson says. “We are totally dependent on the management of those rivers for a lot of reasons. When you talk about that livelihood, that economic development side of it, it is really centered around the management of the rivers. That affects every one of us and the people of our states and the economy of our states. That’s really how important this is.”

From left to right, Governors Parson of Missouri, Ricketts of Nebraska & Reynolds of Iowa (Photo from @GovRicketts Twitter account)

He says there need to be other solutions to prevent further flooding issues.

“You look at the reservoir situation. Can we have more reservoir space to be able to handle this water that we know is going to be coming here every year? Can we build maybe more levees,” asks Parson. “But I think more importantly, does the state take more of an active role in these decisions instead of just leaving it up to one agency? I think the states will have to take more of a role in the management of the river and the Corps is going to have to work with us from a different perspective of what we’ve done than in the past.”

Last Friday, Parson signed an executive order giving the Missouri Department of Natural Resources some flexibility in easing requirements during and after recent Missouri flooding.

He says river management needs to get back to the basics by prioritizing flooding and safety.

Travel problems prevented the governor of Kansas from attending the gathering, but she plans to be part of the next meeting in three weeks.

Flooding causes major roadblocks for Missouri farmers

March 20, 2019 By Alisa Nelson

Record-breaking flooding expected in northwest Missouri will be felt by farmers for months. Missouri Farm Bureau President Blake Hurst tells Missourinet the damage to the infrastructure will be a struggle.

Flooding causes major roadblocks for Missouri farmers

“The difficulties in travel. The difficulties in moving grain, moving fertilizer, moving seed. We have visited with several people that had seed stored over there for the spring season. They had to move it out,” he says. “It will be hard to get fertilizer to northwest Missouri from the west.”

Hurst has farm land in Atchison County’s Tarkio. He says his land luckily has not been damaged but 20 miles down the road near Rock Port is a different story.

“It will be hard, a lot of us deliver grain to a big elevator over there west of Rockport that sits on the bottom,” Hurst says. “They’re not going to have any way to get grain away. The roads are going to be washed out. The railroads are going to be washed out.”

The Missouri Department of Transportation says Interstate 29 remains closed from the Missouri/Iowa border all the way to St. Joseph.

Hurst says the flood event is worse for farmers than the 2011 flood.

“One of the things that happened this time, which I think is a little unique and really kind of frightening is that this happened without warning,” says Hurst. “In 2011, as bad as that was, the farmers over there had some time to get grain out, to get their machinery to higher ground.”

Hurst thinks most area farmers were able to get their tractors and combines to higher ground but not their grain.

“Particularly soybeans, when they come in contact with water, they swell up. The steel bins that they’re stored in will literally just split along the sides of the bins and just collapse. We’re going to see that happen all up and down that Missouri River bottom,” he says.

Some area farmers will have to wait and see how the flooding problems impact their planting season. Hurst says most of the area affected is crop land – not cattle ground.