Jefferson City airport restaurant prepares for flooding
A Jefferson City restaurant was evacuating Wednesday ahead of severe flooding on the Missouri River.
“There’s no telling what he is going through right now,” Eric Raithel said of his brother, the owner of the restaurant.
Raithel’s brother has owned Nick’s Family Restaurant for about 20 years. He was out of town when he got the call about needing to evacuate.
“We’re loading up all of the equipment and putting it into trucks and stuff and taking it to higher ground,” Eric Raithel said.
He said the restaurant is erring on the side of caution because there have been bad floods in the past. In 1993, Eric Raithel said the water reached up to 10 feet in the restaurant.
“You just never know,” he said.
Raithel said because of the flooding in the past, his brother has flood insurance. But several workers and volunteers are still working to make sure nothing is damaged.
Officials were evacuating the entire Jefferson City airport, which sits in the path of the rising floodwaters. The Missouri River is expected to crest at higher than 32 feet in Jefferson City this week, which is 2 feet higher than the levee protecting northern Jefferson City. The city was also evacuating neighborhoods in the path of the flooding.
