The mighty Mississippi reeks havoc on barges and river commerce comes to standstill. One death reported. Bottomline, sand bags holding back floodwaters and other measures mediate river crest. Here is a smattering of newspaper excerpts about the cresting and its effects on local communities and actions taken by local officials from St Louis Post Dispatch and St Louis Today:
“Mississippi River stays in check, for now.
AmeriCorps volunteers and Missouri National Guardsmen from the 2175th Military Police unit from Hannibal continue to shore up the temporary flood walls along South First and Washington streets in Clarksville on Sunday, April 21, 2013, as the Mississippi River continued to slowly rise. By Tim Logan tlogan@post-dispatch.com 314-340-82913…
River towns prepare for rising Mississippi as victims of flash floods clean up…
Rains brought fast-rising water in Jefferson County, Metro East, but slowly rising Mississippi River also looms….
Nixon declares flood emergency, activates Guard. Nixon issued his emergency declaration Friday after strong storms earlier in the week led to flooding…..
Downpours swamp homes in St. Louis metro area, Mississippi River building toward major flood
One woman, died in the flooding, De Soto police said….
The big river didn’t get too big. At least for now. Sandbags held back the cresting Mississippi River from several towns north of St. Louis on Sunday, while the forecast for the immediate vicinity remained high but manageable.
The Pike County hamlet of Clarksville, Mo., where volunteers, National Guard troops and even a few dozen prisoners had spent the last few days stacking sandbags to protect the historic downtown, remained dry, city officials said. And the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers lowered its forecast for Clarksville and other northern Missouri towns, suggesting water won’t get any higher.
“It’s going really good today,” said City Clerk Jennifer Calvin. “Everything’s kind of at a standstill, and holding at that level. Now it’s more of a monitoring situation.”
Closer to St. Louis, some roads remained closed and sand-bagging efforts continued in low-lying areas, but the biggest action was on the river itself.
More than 100 barges broke loose of their moorings in south St. Louis County about 10:30 p.m. Four of them hit the Jefferson Barracks Bridge, prompting the Missouri Department of Transportation and the Missouri Highway Patrol to shut down all but one lane in each direction while crews inspected it for safety. Nine barges full of coal sank, according to the Coast Guard, though most of the rest had been retrieved by Sunday afternoon.
By late Sunday afternoon, all lanes of traffic had been reopened.”
Lake Levels 