By BRENT MARTIN
St. Joseph Post
Southern Buchanan County remains vulnerable to flooding and could remain vulnerable through spring and most of the summer.
Western District Buchanan County Commissioner Ron Hook says he’s concerned.
“What I have concerns about is what past history has always shown and that is that we’re going to get spring rains, we’re going to have spring melting up north, there’s going to be a lot of water coming down the river from other states, and we’re vulnerable right now because of the breaks in the levees that we have,” Hook tells St. Joseph Post.
A big problem from last year’s flooding remains: a breach in the levee near Rushville that protects Highway 59 and the Missouri River bridge at Atchison, Kansas.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers says since repairs require the Corps to go through protected wetlands, it could take three to four months to repair the levee, which also protects Lewis and Clark Village.
The Missouri River level in St. Joseph is near 15 feet with a minor flood stage of 17 feet. In Atchison, Kansas, the river is just above 16 ½ feet with a minor flood stage of 19 feet. The Corps of Engineers is maintaining water releases from Gavins Point dam upstream on the Missouri River at 35,000 cubic feet per second. The Corps says upper Missouri River basin runoff fell in line with the March 1st forecast. Still, runoff above Sioux City, Iowa was 5.5 million-acre feet, nearly two times average, mostly due to above average snowmelt runoff and saturated soils.
Hook says it wouldn’t take much to push the Missouri out of its banks again and threaten southern Buchanan County.
“Down in Atchison, the 22-foot mark is just about where the water comes in out of the river banks and starts filling the farmer’s fields between the river and 59 Highway on the north,” Hooks says.
Hook is keeping his eye on the Missouri River and worries Highway 59 could be flooded, once again cutting off access to the bridge at Atchison. Last year, floodwaters covered 59 Highway cutting off a route to Kansas for about a month.
“Yeah, if the water in the river gets above 22, 22 ½ feet, we’ll definitely see water coming in and jeopardizing the travel to Atchison,” according to Hook.
The levee is maintained by a non-federal levee district which would have to pay 20% of the cost of repair. The cost is higher, because the levee goes through about three acres of Wetland Reserve Program land. The approval process needed just to go through the protected land would take between three to four months.
Floodwaters didn’t just cover the highway, they also flooded homes around Sugar Lake, such as in Lewis and Clark Village.
Hook says Lewis and Clark Village would become vulnerable this year if flooding lasted very long this year, a prospect that very much worries residents.
“There are of lot of them that went back and fixed up their homes, remodeled their homes, tried to get back to life as they know it and then there are others that have a lot of “For Sale” signs up in their yards and they haven’t touched them,” according to Hook. “It’s just the way people live down there and they know that flooding is a possibility in that area.”
Corps of Engineers officials say that at the end of March, the Kansas City District had awarded 24 of the 35 repair contracts it had advertised for bids. The Corps anticipates overseeing 67 total levee rehab projects, including levee systems in both Missouri and Kansas. It could take two years to complete the repairs.