Nearly 400 Missouri roads closed by flooding

[inanna]

Source: Associated Press

June 3, 2019

KANSAS CITY, Mo. - The swollen Mississippi River is straining levees, snarling traffic and forcing people from their homes as it approaches record levels set during devastating flooding in 1993.

Missouri Gov. Mike Parson was touring flooded areas Monday in the northeast part of the state, where there have been around a dozen water rescues. Statewide, nearly 400 roads are closed, including part of U.S. 136.

Locks and dams upstream of St. Louis are shut down as the Mississippi River crests at the second-highest level on record in some communities. Midwestern rivers have flooded periodically since March, causing billions of dollars of damage to farmland, homes and businesses from Oklahoma and Arkansas and up to Michigan.

Near the 1,400-person town of Winfield, Missouri, a Mississippi River levee breached Sunday, forcing evacuations in a rural area, said Sue Casseau, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. On Saturday, sandbags were intentionally removed from a farm levee along the Mississippi River near Ste. Genevieve, Missouri, to allow water through and remove pressure downstream. The Illinois River also overtopped levees that protect a combined 1,500 acres in western Illinois, she said.


Read more: https://www.thestar.com/news/world/us/2019/06/03/nearly-400-missouri-roads-closed-by-flooding.html

[Gore1FL]

1. And a week of heavy rain on its way...

I saw the MS river on Saturday In St. Louis as I was going south on I-55. It was insanely high and wide.

[SWBTATTReg]

2. And we had more insane rains last night too, in STLMO, I don't think it'll help either.

It wasn't a five minute downpour either, it was a heavy, sustained downpour, we had to wait until it subsided for a bit (15 minutes or so until it slowed enough to be able to get to the car).