Swollen rivers breach dozen levees, flooding homes in 4 Midwest states
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Hundreds of homes flooded in several Midwestern states after rivers breached at least a dozen levees following heavy rain and snowmelt in the region, authorities said Monday while warning that the flooding was expected to linger.
About 200 miles of levees were compromised — either breached or overtopped — in four states, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers said. Even in places where the water level peaked in those states — Nebraska, Iowa, Missouri and Kansas — the current was fast and the water so high that damage continued to pile up. The flooding was blamed for at least three deaths.
“The levees are busted, and we aren’t even into the wet season when the rivers run high,” said Tom Bullock, the emergency management director for Missouri’s Holt County.
He said many homes in a mostly rural area of Holt County were inundated with 6 to 7 feet of water from the swollen Missouri River. He noted that local farmers are only a month away from planting corn and soybeans.
One couple was rescued by helicopter after water from three breached levees swept across 40,000 acres, he said. Another nine breaches were confirmed in Nebraska and Iowa counties south of the Platte River, the Corps said.
In Atchison County, Mo., about 130 people were urged to leave their homes as water levels rose and strained levees, three of which had already been overtopped by water. Missouri State Highway Patrol crews were on standby to rescue anyone who insisted on staying despite the danger.
The Missouri River already crested upstream of Omaha, Neb., though hundreds of people remained out of their homes and water continued to pour through busted levees. Flooding was so bad around Fremont, Neb., that just one lane of U.S. 30 was uncovered outside the city of 26,000. State law enforcement limited traffic on that road to preapproved trucks carrying gas, food, water and other essential supplies.
“We need Mother Nature to decrease the height of the river,” said Fremont City Administrator Brian Newton.
In southwest Iowa, the Missouri River reached a level in Fremont County that was 2 feet above a record set in 2011. The county’s emergency management director, Mike Crecelius, said Monday that more water was flooding into lowlying parts of Hamburg, where a wall of sand-filled barriers was breached when one failed.
In North Dakota, Fargo was preparing for potentially major flooding along the Red River — the same river that ravaged the city a decade ago. Mayor Tim Mahoney declared an emergency and asked residents to help fill 1 million sandbags in response to a weather service warning that snowmelt poses a big risk.