Missouri River Floods Again

Get out your boats and galoshes. It is once again time for Northwest Missouri to experience flooding. That is right. The flood waters have returned to Northwest Missouri and the people here already springing into action. Today, May 7, 2007, the Missouri River reached 25.19 feet at 10:00 P.M. It is expected to crest at 29.4 feet by Wednesday morning. Flood Stage is 17 feet.

Starting Friday, May 4, 2007, with the almost complete destruction of a small town in southwest Kansas, we here in Northwest Missouri started really paying attention to the weather again. We have had quite a bit of rain recently but no one expected the river to rise so quickly. And when I say quickly I mean that on May 5, 2007 the Missouri River in St. Joseph was well below flood stage, resting at right around 10.88 feet most of the day. Remember, that is

On Monday, May 7, I went for a drive to see what shape the area was in so far. I was here for the "Great Flood of 1993" and remember all too well the damage and broken lives from the flood waters then. As I drove into Mound City, which is about 35 miles north of St. Joseph, I looked out toward the Squaw Creek Refuge and could see water everywhere. Now, normally, there is a little water but this was way more than a little. As I drove along Highway 118 outside Mound City heading toward Big Lake State Park, the fields that only recently had had four inch corn coming up, looked more like a swamp or in some places a raging river. The water had invaded several yards and had started its' way into the village of Bigelow.

As we drove along, I watched many people moving their belongings and many more with their boats, pontoons and other water vessels in tow. Farmers who live or farm near the river were hustling to get their corn out of the grain bins. They had tractor-trailers lined up to help empty the bins quickly. Some farmers did not get lucky enough. Their grain bins were so close to the river that they never had the chance to remove their corn. Farmers were also moving cattle to higher ground.