This story package delves into the farm and community repercussions of the Flood of 2019,includes a look back at the benchmark flood years of 1903, 1993 and 2008, the effects of river management decisions of the past decade and a look forward to recovery.
Farmers respond to months of flooding
PERCIVAL, Iowa — David Lueth looks east to his farmstead, separated by a partially submerged road pounded into pieces by the raging floodwaters of the Missouri River.
The river broke through the federal levee system in several spots in mid-March, burying the fertile river bottom of Fremont County, Iowa, in several feet of murky water. Three months later, the water has subsided some, but for Lueth and his neighbors, the growing season ended before it even started.
Several levees in southwest Iowa have been fixed after failing in March, but much work remains. This major break near Percival flooded thousands of crop acres in Fremont County.
Illinois farm communities fight rounds of flooding
JERSEYVILLE, Ill. — Jeff Fraley called the corn planted in his Jerseyville fields this year “some of the prettiest corn I’ve had.” Seeing it was more rewarding because it had been a difficult year to get crops in the ground.
But on June 4, his southwestern Illinois field was under 17 feet of water.
Shannon Fraley shares a photo of her family atop one of their grain bins. It will make a great Christmas or New Year’s photo showing the year of 2019 behind them along with the high waters.
Flooding causes damage across Missouri, affects 2019 planting
WAVERLY, Mo. — Down came the floodwaters into Missouri, starting as early as March and worsening. Down from up north in the massive Missouri and Mississippi river basins, from the melting of heavy snowfalls, and down from the sky in the form of excess rainfall and the wettest May on record in Missouri.
All that water accumulated in river bottoms, seeped through the ground into fields, and in some cases poured over and through levees, pushing water to places not seen in a generation or more.
Franklin County farmer Danny Kuenzel says levees in his area have held, but seep water and rainfall have led to flooding in Missouri River bottom fields.
DES MOINES — The last year has clearly been one of extremes for farmers across Iowa, Illinois and Missouri.
The past 12 months have been the wettest in the 124 years that statisticians have been keeping count, according to Iowa's State Climatologist Justin Glisan.
There has long been an uneasy relationship between some farmers and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
The intentional blowout of a section of the Birds Point levee in 2011 still stirs emotions among farmers in southeast Missouri, whose lands were flooded after the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers used explosives to blast out a section of the levee in order to divert floodwaters away from populated areas.
Like his neighbors, Jeff Van Renan was told to evacuate his Fremont County home in mid-March.
After a few days, with the help of an air boat, Van Renan returned to his home near Percival, Iowa, primarily to care for livestock and other animals left behind.
Missouri prepares for new disaster declaration request
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. — Missouri has requested the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) participate in joint Preliminary Damage Assessments across a total of 56 counties — almost half the 114 counties in the state — in response to tornadoes, severe storms and worsening flooding.
The joint teams will survey damage that began with severe storms on April 29 and continued since then in preparation for a request from Gov. Mike Parson for federal disaster assistance.
SPRINGFIELD, Ill. — Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker issued a new state disaster proclamation June 20, adding two new counties — Knox and Henry — in response to the extensive flooding along the Mississippi, Illinois rivers and its tributaries.
This most recent proclamation adds the local counties to the areas directly impacted by this flood. The state has been actively involved in flood fighting operations for more than 100 days, with rivers still in major flood stages.
Multiple rounds of flooding complicate Midwest crop plans
Will Longinaker considers his farming operation lucky.
The southwest Iowa farmer operates on land in Randolph and Percival, Iowa, where he has had to deal with the Missouri River and West Nishnabotna flood water this year.
TAYLORVILLE, Ill. — Purple isn’t a good look when it comes to corn.
Jeff Fraley, a Jerseyville, Illinois, farmer saw purple corn after the Illinois River breached the Nutwood levee district in southwest Illinois in 1993, causing thousands of acres of prevent plant fields. The odd color in some fields came from lack of useable phosphorous for the corn plants.
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. — For centuries, farmers have had a complex relationship with the Missouri and Mississippi rivers. The rivers have long provided ready access to markets for crops, but they also cause devastating flooding.
Sean Rost, oral historian with the State Historical Society of Missouri, says newspaper accounts from nearly 200 years ago often reflect the same topics on farmers’ minds today, particularly market access.
Missouri River floodwaters spill out of its banks at Boonville. Historians say the 1903 flood led to greater flood control efforts. In the bottom right photo the Mississippi River floodwaters inundate Hannibal, Mo.
Photos courtesy of the State Historical Society of Missouri
Today markers on the Missouri River bridge at Hermann show the river height. Many historic floods along the Missouri and Mississippi rivers have set high water marks through the years.
Nebraska archeologists hope to find nothing in flooded farms
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Archeologists surveying recently flooded Nebraska farms are hoping — for once — to not find anything historically significant as such a discovery could delay federal aid to the beleaguered farmers.
After the massive spring floods receded, state agency History Nebraska stepped in to help sift through the sand and debris left on fields to look for pottery and other evidence of former Native American hunting grounds or pioneer settlements, the Omaha World-Herald reported.
