In this aerial photo, houses are surrounded by floodwater, Thursday, Dec. 31, 2015, in Arnold, Mo.
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ST. LOUIS (AP) – The worst of the unsafe, deadly winter flood is over in the St. Louis area, leaving residents of several water-logged communities to assess damage, clean up and figure out how to bounce back – or in some cases, where to live.
The body of 18-year-old Devan Everett was found Friday.
“When you see a historic flood, we are committed to a historic response”, he said.
In Texas, thousands of cows died in a surprise blizzard, while the milk supply dried up for thousands of others went unmilked for several days, reducing their production for months to come, dairy officials told CNN.
In the Alexander County seat of Cairo, where the MS and OH rivers meet, the OH is expected to crest Sunday at 56.5 feet, more than 3 feet above major flooding stage.
Illinois Emergency Management Agency spokeswoman Patti Thompson said the state’s flooding death toll increased to nine.
Record flooding damaged homes and business and forced road closures in the St. Louis area, as heavy rain caused the Meramec River to burst its banks.
Expressways coming out of the St. Louis metropolitan area have been reopened, though in some areas the danger persists of rivers overflowing.
Drone footage of flooding in Cape Girardeau, posted to YouTube.
Nixon and Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner also toured flood-ravaged areas on Saturday as levee breaks and predicted near-record crests of the Mississippi River threatened more homes. Searchers were still looking for four missing people – one teenager in IL, two men in Missouri and a country music singer in Oklahoma. About 20 Illinois National Guard soldiers have been activated to help with recovery efforts.
The main culprit in the St. Louis region was the Meramac River, a relatively small MS tributary.
Two wastewater treatment plants were so damaged by the floodwaters that raw sewage spewed into the river.
“We are seeing higher levels of bacteria in the river water… but we’re managing it”, she told CNN.
Residents of southern USA states along the Mississippi River are bracing for the flooding that swamped communities from the Ohio River Valley to eastern Oklahoma during the week, causing thousands of evacuations and killing at least 31 people.
In Thebes, Illinois, about 125 miles (201 km) downriver from St. Louis, the floodwater was expected to crest at 47.5 feet (14 m) on Sunday, more than 1.5 feet above the 1995 record, the NWS said. Hundreds of people were evacuated in Pacific, Eureka, Valley Park and Arnold, where many homes took in water.
In southeast Missouri, the MS crested overnight Friday but not before damaging about two-dozen homes in Cape Girardeau, a community of almost 40,000 residents that is mostly protected by a flood wall. The National Weather Service issued a flood advisory for the Cumberland River at Dover, Tennessee, through Monday evening.
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As the runoff from the deluges that hit around Christmas continues gathering in rivers that empty into the Mississippi River, downstream, gauges are predicting flooding in areas farther south as deep torrents roll that way – in Arkansas, Tennessee, Mississippi and Louisiana.
