Drainage engineers closely watch flood predictions

The intense flooding in northwest Missouri has levee officials in mid-Missouri bracing for the impacts in the days and weeks ahead.

“The concern we’ve got is if you look upstream up the Missouri up toward St.Joseph, they’re at record highs right now and we don’t know how that’s going to affect us yet,” said MODOT maintenance engineer Jason Shafer. “Right now it’s looking like it did in ’93.”

The Capitol View Drainage District it designed to protect from flood waters up to the 30-foot level on the Jefferson City gauge.

Tuesday, the water level on the Missouri River at Jefferson City was recorded at 25.21 feet, according to the National Weather Service.

The weather service and the Army Corps of Engineers assist in the monitoring of flood levels and predictions and work with local agencies, levee districts and drainage subdivisions on preparation.

“They’ll give us as much warning as they possibly can,” said Britt Smith, secretary of the Capitol View Drainage Dictrict. “They forecast for at least a week out and we monitor them multiple times a day.”

The latest flooding data from the National Weather Service can be viewed by following this link.

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