Weekend flooding closes Boone County roads
Flooding still a concern for the week as high rivers connect with creeks and tributaries.
Published Sept. 16, 2008
Heavy rains and flooding extended across Missouri over the weekend as the remnants of Hurricane Ike hit the state.
The Missouri Department of Transportation reported that around 200 state routes were closed to flooding, said Susie Stonner, a public information officer for the Missouri State Emergency Management Agency.
In Boone County, 27 roads were still closed on Monday morning, according to the Boone County Office of Emergency Management.
Chuck Mastalski, a shift supervisor at the Boone County Public Safety Joint Communications Center, said some of the closed roads would open as the water begins to recede with the parting weather.
The flooding also resulted in three deaths as of Friday night - one in Boone County and two in the St. Louis area, Stonner said.
In Columbia, the victim, later identified as 21-year-old Michelle Runkle, was swept down river after attempting to help a man who was stranded in Hominy Creek after his vehicle was swept off of Clark Lane by floodwaters, the Columbia Fire Department said in a news release.
Clark Lane remains closed due to extensive damage. The road will be reopened once repairs are made.
As the conditions worsened over the weekend, Gov. Matt Blunt and Lt. Gov. Peter Kinder signed executive orders that permitted state agencies to assist local governments in their emergency responses, Stonner said.
Some instances of help from state agencies included the Missouri State Highway Patrol helping local governments with evacuations and safety and the Missouri State Water Patrol helping out in swift water rescue situations.
Over the course of the weekend, several parts of Boone County received heavy rainfall. Columbia received 4.72 inches of rainfall while Jefferson City had 5.35 inches of rainfall, said Thomas Spriggs, a meteorologist for the National Weather Service in Springfield, Mo. To the west, Boonville received 3.17 inches while Sedalia got 3.31 inches.
No more rainfall is forecast for the next seven days, Spriggs said.
Despite the forecast, flooding still remains a concern due to the volume of rainfall the state received during the weekend.
The Missouri River near Jefferson City was at a flood height of 29 feet on Monday morning and was considered in moderate flood stage. The river is expected to crest sometime on Tuesday and could surpass the flood height of 30 feet needed to reach the major flood stage.
Meanwhile, the Moreau River, also near Jefferson City, was at a major flooding stage with a flood height of 32.6 feet on Monday morning. The river could possibly reach a record flood stage of 34 feet during the week, Spriggs said.
While the rains have passed, the rivers and creeks in the area could still rise over the week because of the amount of rainfall received in areas to the north and west of Boone County.
"A lot of flooding is not about what fell directly on you but what fell upstream," he said.
Rainfall that fell farther upstream will continue to accumulate as it flows downstream and meets with the small creeks and tributaries. This could result in more flooding despite a dry forecast for the rest of the week.