KCRag Forum

According to the Missouri Department of Transportation, the Interstate 29 closure at the Missouri/Iowa border has been extended farther south from Rockport, Missouri, to the intersection of U.S. Highway 71 north of St. Joseph because of flooding from the Missouri River.

I-29 is also closed in Iowa in both directions from Pacific Junction, Iowa, to the Missouri state line. The interstate is the major highway that connects Kansas City to Omaha and additional cities to the north.
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Road closings and evacuations continue to impact areas in northeast Kansas and northwest Missouri because of flooding from the Missouri River.

The city of Atchison, Kansas, said Thursday morning the highway to the Amelia Earhart Bridge is closed and is "expected to be covered within the hour."
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Nearly two-thirds of the lower 48 states face an elevated risk for flooding through May, with the potential for major or moderate flooding in 25 states, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's U.S. Spring Outlook issued Thursday.

According to the report, most of the country is favored to experience above-average precipitation this spring, increasing the flood risk.

“The extensive flooding we’ve seen in the past two weeks will continue through May and become more dire and may be exacerbated in the coming weeks as the water flows downstream,” said Ed Clark, director of NOAA’s National Water Center in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. “This is shaping up to be a potentially unprecedented flood season, with more than 200 million people at risk for flooding in their communities.”

“Portions of the United States – especially in the upper Mississippi and Missouri River basins, including Nebraska, Minnesota and Iowa – have already experienced record flooding this year,” NOAA said in a statement.
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Laura Mutchler, a lifelong resident of Craig, has been through floods before in 1993 and 2011, but she said this one is different.

"This is the third time I've had to leave, but if water gets in my house, it'll be the first time," she said.
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"Last night, they came and told us it was, like, 2 inches below the levee. 'You better get out.' And I'm, like, 'No, there ain't no water yet,'" Hooper said.
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The Missouri River's next major flood crest was forecast to hit St. Joseph, Missouri, at 6 a.m. on Friday and Kansas City, Missouri, 55 miles (88 km) to the south, about 24 hours later, said Mike Glasch of the Omaha District of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

Homeowners and businesses across Leavenworth County, Missouri, where 81,000 people were under a flood warning on Wednesday, were placing sandbags around property as they have watched the river rise over the last few days, Kim Buchanan, the county’s deputy director of emergency management, told Reuters.
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A levee break prompted the evacuation of the small community of Craig, Missouri. Real estate agent Jamie Barnes said everyone in town had time to get out before it was flooded, and water was now flowing south through farmland toward communities such as Forest City, Forbes and St Joseph.

"There's just water as far as the eye can see, from bluff to bluff. In some places its five miles, in some 15," Barnes said by phone.
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But Bean said the kind of flooding hitting the Midwest is typically seen in June and July, after the final snow-melt and the spring rains.

“This is March, and we haven’t had the final snow melt,” he said. “We haven’t had the spring rains. The reservoir is full. They have got to get it empty.”
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In the Kansas City metropolitan area, the Missouri River at Parkville crested overnight at about 35 feet. By Sunday morning, it had dropped to 34.35 feet.

In Riverside, Missouri 9 remained closed Sunday in both directions because floodwaters covered the highway. The northbound lanes were closed at Northwest Briarcliff Parkway and the southbound lanes were closed at Riverway Boulevard. Northwest Tullison Road also was closed in that area.

In downtown Kansas City, the Missouri River crested about 34.4 feet and had fallen to 33.6 feet shortly before noon Sunday.
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Kansas City’s public water utility has asked residents to conserve water to help with the city’s challenge of treating Missouri River water that has been made murky by recent flooding.

Conserving water could help reduce the impact of flooding conditions on the treatment plant and help meet treatment needs, KC Water said in a news release Sunday. The city draws drinking water from the river.

The utility said there has been no confirmed biologic or virus contamination found in the water, but an alert concerning water quality it issued late Friday remained in effect Sunday.
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A state of emergency has been declared in Platte County.

Platte County Presiding Commissioner Ron Schieber signed the emergency declaration just before 5 p.m. Friday after receiving updates from the sheriff and county emergency management director.

The Platte County Sheriff's Office said in a news release that the Missouri River has overtopped significant portions of levees in the northwest portion of the county.
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Portions of Interstate Highway 29 in Iowa and Missouri, as well as other major highways in the southwest corner of the state, have closed for the second time this year because of flooding.
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The interstate is also closed from the Missouri state line south to St. Joseph.
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Flooding in eastern Jackson County has closed a portion of U.S. 24 highway east of the town of Levasy, according to authorities. The flooding came after two levees serving the eastern part of the county along the Missouri River were breached Saturday.
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“(U.S. 24) outside of Levasy completely underwater and impassable both directions,” the sheriff wrote in a post shortly before 10 a.m.

The flooding came after two levees serving the eastern part of the county along the Missouri River were breached Saturday, causing an evacuation of families from Levasy, a town of fewer than 100 people east of Buckner.
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