Illinois, Missouri assess damage, cleanup after flooding

Residents in Tennessee, Mississippi and Louisiana are on alert as historic winter flooding pushes downstream on the Mississippi River, while those in the Midwest are starting to dry out their flooded homes and belongings.

The worst of the unsafe, deadly winter flood is over in the St. Louis area, leaving residents of several water-logged communities to spend the first day of 2016 assessing damage, cleaning up and figuring out how to bounce back – or in some cases, where to live. The flooding has spread south from Havana to the riverside towns of Beardstown, Meredosia, Valley City and Hardin near the Mississippi River.

Communities and towns along the southern part of the Mississippi River are bracing for risky conditions as water levels in states including Tennessee, Arkansas, Mississippi and Louisiana are predicted to surge to flood level.

The levels are about a foot lower than the lower Mississippi River region saw in 2011, when there was significant flooding, Graschel said.

That’s what the American Red Cross says it has doled out to flood-stricken people in Missouri and IL, giving 586 victims refuge along the way as of Sunday night. Mike Crews, Christian County’s emergency manager, said the worst of the inundation appeared to be past, “until the new weather comes”, citing the prospect of potentially heavy rain later in the week. At least 30 homes were destroyed in the city of almost 39,000, according to an Associated Press report. The voluntary evacuation could run another four days and no injuries or deaths have been reported, he said. However, the Illinois River continued to rise in some Illinois stretches.

“I lost my home”, Stivers said. The declaration also allows for coordination work by the Federal Emergency Management Agency in disaster relief. However, he says that casino operators and regulators now believe that the current high water will not force the closure of any casinos in the northern Mississippi County.

The Mississippi River was cresting near Cairo, Illinois, on Monday, reaching 56 feet, a record for this time of year but below the all-time mark of 61.7 feet set in 2011, Graschel said. In New Orleans, the river was at 13.47 feet, several feet below its 17-foot flood stage. “Am I mad? When I’m not crying I am”.

The Mississippi receded further from unsafe levels at St. Louis and farther south at Thebes, Illinois, and Cape Girardeau, Missouri, on Sunday, the NWS said.

Knaup says levee breaks across the river in IL lowered the water level enough to keep most of Allenville’s homes dry.

Nine people have died in the Illinois flooding and a dozen counties have been declared disaster areas there, said Patti Thompson, spokeswoman for the Illinois Emergency Management Agency. My team at NRDC recently looked at how much federal assistance goes to rebuild public infrastructure in the wake of floods.

St. Louis-area cleanup largely was focused around the Meramec.

Two wastewater treatment plants near St. Louis were so damaged by the floodwaters that raw sewage spewed into the Meramec River, which feeds into the Mississippi River.

Hundreds of people were evacuated in Pacific, Eureka, Valley Park and Arnold, and many of their homes took in water.

The Amtrak train service between St Louis and Kansas City was restored on Sunday, four days after high waters reached the tracks in some locations.

Minor flooding along the Ohio River was affecting the Kentucky cities of Owensboro and Paducah, and the crest wasn’t expected until Thursday.