Close to St. Louis on Friday, the water level on the Mississippi River, the second-longest river in the USA, was falling on Friday after reaching near-record heights, the National Weather Service said.
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Jobless claims rise sharply during holiday week
Economist agree with the Labor Department, and it is not atypical for jobless claims to rise during the last week of December. The monthly average is seen as a more accurate gauge of labor trends because it reduces volatility in the week-to-week data.
The death toll from the flooding has risen to 31, with most of those in Illinois, Missouri, Oklahoma and Arkansas caused by people driving into flooded areas after days of downpours. There were no immediate reports of damage.
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Four people were missing as a result of the deluge, two each in Missouri and IL.
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Chiefs game Sunday at Arrowhead Stadium, expect sun again, and slightly cooler, with highs going into the high 30s. It’s a quiet start to the new year, with partly cloudy skies and temperatures around 40 degrees today .
Flood waters in Chester are expected to crest early Saturday morning at 46.5 feet, a reduction from Thursday’s estimate.
Workers in southwestern Tennessee were preparing sandbags on Friday in hopes of limiting damage from the MS when it crests at Memphis next week, state emergency management officials said.
In response to historic flooding in some areas of Missouri, Gov. Jay Nixon mobilized the Missouri National Guard to protect local communities and support emergency response personnel.
Meanwhile, a record crest of potentially over a foot above the 1993 crest was expected by the weekend in Cape Girardeau, Missouri, The Weather Channel reported.
Record flooding along the Meramec River forced closure of all lanes of the busy north-south interstate highway on Wednesday, snarling traffic in a busy area of St. Louis and Jefferson counties.
The county is also urging residents in and near East Cape Girardeau, Illinois, to evacuate. The worst flooding was on the smaller Meramec River.
Back in the state from an undisclosed foreign vacation, Rauner will appear at the Randolph County Courthouse, 1 Taylor Street in Chester, at 4:15 p.m. From there he will tour flooded areas in that city.
Hundreds of miles to the south, in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, the river is expected to crest above flood stage on January 19. Sandbagging efforts were also underway in the tiny town of St. Mary, Missouri, after the breach of a Mississippi River levee.
A water plant failed in the St. Louis-area town of High Ridge this week after flooding from the Meramec River swamped the plant. Missouri American Water spokeswoman Ann Dettmer said the water in homes and businesses still is safe to use.
That confidence was of little consolation to Tim Meeks, who was loading vats of gourmet olive oil from his downtown market onto a trailer headed to higher ground as other employees worked to drain a basement filled with 7 feet of standing water.
“The water was going to be higher than we could possibly build in time, so we all decided we were going to get a U-Haul truck, pack it up and leave”, Engelman told CNN affiliate KMOV on Thursday. But the shopping district along the lake was still open, Fire Chief Ted Martin said, adding, “it has been packed with people, and I don’t know where all of them have come from”.
Flood warnings were also in effect on Friday for parts of Texas, South Carolina, Alabama and Kentucky, the NWS said, while major flooding was occurring on the Arkansas River and its tributaries in that state.
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“They just told me pack up my clothes and if I have any pictures I want just to make sure that I have them packed and ready to go in case”, she said.
