Hartsburg residents finish sandbagging efforts

The town of Hartsburg is making a last-ditch effort to keep water from the Missouri River and the Hart Creek out of the town.

Southern Boone County Fire Protection District said residents and volunteers filled about 10,000 sandbags and put about 7,500 along the Katy Trail Wednesday. The efforts raised the trail about 1 foot with sandbags.

Officials said there aren’t any plans to fill more sandbags but supplies will get restocked for future use.

Bill Molendorp, mayor of Hartsburg, said volunteers had been laying sand bags for two weeks.

“We’ve got a sandbagging machine and that has made it a little less difficult,” he said.

Molendorp commended the efforts of the volunteers.

“It’s quite an experience,” he said.

Wednesday was the first day the town had the machine to fill bags.

Water was spilling over the levee in the river bottom in several areas, covering roads with fast-paced streams. The Missouri River was holding steady at about 33 feet in Jefferson City, well above major flood level. Flooding from the river and its tributaries had closed roads around mid-Missouri.

A handful of Hartsburg resident were leaving ahead of the flooding.

“About two weeks ago is when I first noticed some of the farmers moving equipment out of the river bottoms and then along up the road. And at that point I knew that there was something going to happen,” Molendorp said.

A federal disaster relief package is on its way to the president’s desk, which would provide some funds for communities affected by flooding.

Molendorp said whether Hartsburg would try to receive any of the money was still up in the air.

“It’s just another step to check into,” he said.

He said it was something the city government would decide once it sees the extent of the damage.

Linda Nahler has lived near Hartsburg her whole life. She and her husband farm in the area. She says some residents will probably apply for aid if their land or their homes flood. Nahler said after the flood of 1993 many people applied for financial help from the government.

Despite that money, it still took her family nearly two years to get some areas back to usable condition after the flood.

U.S. Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Missouri, said the federal aid package was not nearly enough to help communities such as Hartsburg.

“There is some funding in the package to help with the flooding we’re seeing in the northwest part of the state, but it’s just a down payment though. We’re going to need a lot more,” he said.

“This package was drawn up and written really before the flooding occurred in our state, and we were able to get some relief out into this bill that we need and will hopefully flow pretty quickly after the bill is signed,” he said.

Hawley said the package is just the very beginning of cleaning up Missouri after the water finally goes down.