Two days after the May 22 tornado that devastated our city, another natural disaster occurred when the Missouri River breached the Capital view levee, flooding North Jefferson City.
The event caused serious effects on our city. As we reported in our "top 10 stories of 2019" feature last Sunday, it forced the evacuation in North Jefferson City, canceled what would be the final Salute to Veterans Airshow (and the only one that was to occur in Jefferson City), flooded the Jefferson City Memorial Airport, closed Missouri 94 and the Katy Trail, and inundated farmland and businesses in the river bottoms.
The full affects of the flooding probably never sank in with most local residents, only because the event was overshadowed by the tornado.
The biggest ongoing problem is the Capitol View Levee is still breached in multiple places. The levee holds the water to about 30 feet. In its current shape, we're protected to about 27 feet.
People across multiple states who are living in the Missouri River flood plain are still struggling to recover. Some of their land is still underwater.
Recovery isn't looking promising this coming spring. Kevin Low, a National Weather Service hydrologist with the Missouri Basin River Forecast Center, said the outlook is "grim," according to an Associated Press article we published Dec. 30.
Saturated ground, which will presumably freeze this winter, combined with high-running rivers, could exacerbate the problem, he said.
"I don't know that I've seen a worse set-up for flooding potential," Low told the AP.
Jay Fischer, of Fischer Farms in North Jefferson City, had floodwaters cover much of his property. He expects if breached levees are not fixed, crop insurance through the U.S. Department of Agriculture either will not be available for the land behind those levees or the insurance will be unaffordable.
A Flood Recovery Advisory Working Group will report back to Gov. Mike Parson to determine some solutions.
Meanwhile, the message from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is "be patient," according to a Dec. 5 story by KRCG-TV 13. In that story, a corps official said repairs on levees "will not be completed in the spring, or in the fall, and maybe not until the following spring."
For any normal project, we would expect the feds to spend a few years getting the cover sheets on their TPS reports in perfect alignment. In this situation, however, we ask the Army Corps to consider the effects this has on people's lives. Please cut the bureaucracy and help us midwesterners repair our levees.
News Tribune