Cole County Public Works monitoring low-lying areas with expected rain

With the expected rain Wednesday night through Thursday, Cole County Public Works is watching low-lying problem areas across the county.

At its peak, heavy rains shut down nearly 20 roads across Cole County last week near the Missouri, Osage and Moreau rivers. Many roads took several days to reopen.

The ABC 17 Stormtrack Weather team is forecasting another inch and a half of possible rain through Thursday night in Cole County.

Public works will keep a close eye on the Moreau River crossings at Meadows Ford, Waterford and Murphey Ford roads, according to the road superintendent, Larry Bishop.

“They’re just low water bridges, so if the water, if we get a lot of rain they’ll come up the fastest,” Bishop said. “And a lot of times, it’s how much rain we get above us. … So that’ll depend on how much rain we get up there too.”

Although last week’s flooding caused minimal damage, crews were kept busy this week checking affected roads and bridges.

“We’ve got pipes that are still choked up,” Bishop said. “We’re working on those and we’re replacing pipes as we can on the bad ones. We’re trying to get some stormwater stuff designed in subdivisions. … It takes a lot of time to get around to getting them all back in shape again.”

Crews are also working to replace a few stormwater pipes in the Westview Heights Subdivision after recurring flooding issues, according to Bishop.

Wednesday night, the National Weather Service said the Osage River near St. Thomas was also at near flood stage.

However, Bishop said public works did not foresee issues with roads along the Osage and Missouri rivers this week.