During a news conference, Nixon said the Missouri National Guard will be meeting with people in the affected areas Tuesday and Wednesday to work out a schedule for removing debris.
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A rare winter flood that brought record or near-milestone crests along the Mississippi River and its tributaries, claiming at least 25 lives in Missouri and IL, has largely subsided in the region.
On the first day of 2016, the Mississippi River crested at its third-highest level on record in St. Louis. The inundation has spewed tens of millions of gallons of untreated human waste, according to the sewer district’s website, on a path toward the Mississippi River and an unavoidable southward trek to the Gulf of Mexico.
But the floodwaters also could include such things as farm chemicals, as well as livestock waste, industrial chemicals, dead animals, gasoline and railroad toxins. The majority of depots can’t load cargoes linked to deliveries against futures contracts because of high water levels and flooding, CME said in a statement Monday, citing exchange rules.
Division hydrologists and hydraulic engineers keep track of river stages in real time using satellite links to gages and coordinate closely with multiple organizations, including the National Weather Service, to provide an ongoing picture of current and expected river conditions.
“We can’t do anything right now”, said County Judge Dutch King. He says that’s especially unsafe given cold, and icy water temperatures.
The Coast Guard already had high-water safety advisories in place for much of the Mississippi River south of Chester, Illinois. In the news recently is the unfortunate flooding on the Mississippi River system.
Tunica County Emergency Manager Randy Stewart says that with a lowered flood forecast, water is likely to threaten only a handful of homes in the area on the exposed side of the levee.
Rauner on Tuesday added Cass, Cumberland, Iroquois, Lawrence, Marion, Menard, Moultrie, Pike, Richland, Sangamon and Vermilion counties.
Southern Illinois Community Foundation has established a Flood Relief Regional Disaster Fund…
Richard Knaup, veteran emergency management director for Cape Girardeau County in southeast Missouri, said he thinks he knows why the Mississippi River is flooding more than it used to and at higher levels.
The bulk of the 15 people killed in Missouri also died while attempting to drive across flooded roads.
In Louisiana, governor Bobby Jindal issued a state of emergency due to the imminent flooding of the MS and Red Rivers.
But worries surfaced anew Sunday along the still-rising Illinois River north of St. Louis, where crests near the west-central Illinois towns of Valley City, Meredosia, Beardstown and Havana were to approach records before receding in coming days.
In Alexander County, officials knocked on more than 500 doors to urge people to leave voluntarily, though many stayed, Tatum said. Perryville is about 75 miles south of St. Louis. The Joplin Globe (http://bit.ly/1RZOaCt) reports that the county unsuccessfully sought funding from the Federal Emergency Management Agency to help cover buyout costs after 2007 flooding. A road to a water treatment plant has been closed, but no evacuations have been ordered. The Missouri Transportation Department is preparing to open the Chester Bridge into IL as soon as Monday evening after an inspection and evaluation, he said.
Several other states along the Mississippi River were still bracing for the crest, which was flowing past Tiptonville, Tenn., and expected to reach Memphis on Thursday at 6.5 feet above flood stage. The roads that don’t have damage should open up in the next week or two.
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Bob Holmes, a Missouri-based hydrologic engineer for the U.S. Geological Survey, says the Midwest has received far more rainfall than normal over the past quarter of a century, and more extreme rainstorms, such as the three-day downpour December 26-28 that dumped 10 inches of rain over much of Missouri and IL and caused this latest mess.
