Flooding in the Midwest: 4 Rivers Surge, Along With Residents' Worries

[TexasTowelie]

ALTON, Ill. — To say that there is a powerful river in the Midwest that is threatening to flood communities nearby hardly narrows it down.

The Illinois, the Missouri, the Arkansas and the Mississippi Rivers were all at risk of spilling over in the coming days. The prospect put a patchwork of local and state officials on high alert on Friday, as they prepared sandbags, assembled barriers and nervously eyed the rising waters.

This spring has been a season of record-breaking floods across the Midwest, submerging farms, businesses and houses. Scientists have predicted that the flooding this year could be worse than the historic floods of 1993, which devastated the region.

And once again, the people who live along the four rivers were reminded of the delicate compact they have made, enjoying the beauty, recreation and commerce that the rivers provide, but also accepting their regular capability for destruction.

Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/24/us/midwest-river-flooding.html

[Achilleaze]

1. republican role model & leader* dodges out of town

to celebrate HIMSELF, to avoid having to do a damn thing for America, and as always to avoid any responsibility whatsoever.

* aka republican Draft-Dodger-in-Chief

[mnhtnbb]

2. We were living in St. Joseph, MO in 1993

and actually flew over the area right before the levees broke.

We had been on a family trip with our two sons, ages 6 and 3, with my husband flying us in a 4 seater plane down to Georgia to visit his family. We stopped in Chattanooga for a couple of nights on the way back. We had stopped to refuel at a small airport along the Mississippi River on the way home and my husband phoned ahead to the little general aviation airport outside St Joseph which was actually on the other side of the Missouri River in Kansas. They told him the road to the airport was sand bagged and they were flying all the planes out. They had a pilot waiting for us to get back who would immediately fly the plane we were renting out after we landed. We arrived a few hours later after flying over huge areas of flooded fields. The flood waters were just below the sand bags piled high along the road on the way out of the airport. That night the levees broke in a couple of places and the airport was under about 4 feet of water in the morning. If we'd been a day later, my Jeep that was parked at the airport would have been flooded.

The floods in '93 were devastating.

[mnhtnbb]

3. NY Times article behind paywall

but here's a map of the river gauges and areas threatened.

https://images.app.goo.gl/LxdTvNFzNAtCTKpcA

[murielm99]

4. Thanks for the link.

It is very helpful.

[bluedigger]

5. I was in central Iowa on a DOT highway project.

15 of the 20 mile corridor we we working on was submerged. We headed back East when there was only one access back to the interstate, and the local bar closed because the kegs in the basement were underwater.

[MoonRiver]

6. I remember it well.

We lived in the Creve Coeur area then, far away from the flooding, but the trauma was everywhere. My daughter and I volunteered to fill sand bags.

[loyalsister]

7. Roosterville?

I once knew someone who kept their plane there.

[mnhtnbb]

8. Rosecrans

I dunno. Was it nicknamed Roosterville?

My husband was a general aviation pilot. Didn't own a plane, but rented one from there quite a bit while we were living in St. Joe.

[loyalsister]

9. Two different airports

It's in rural Liberty. Seems close for two small airports. But the aviation influences of Lindbergh span across the state with the Missouri central university positioned between STL and KC.

[mnhtnbb]

10. Rosecrans is also part military. It's one of two Air National Guard bases in MO

and has been there since WW II. One of the runways is 8000 ft.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosecrans_Air_National_Guard_Base

This is why having it underwater because of flooding was a real disaster.