Torrential Rains Bring New Floods to Missouri, Kansas

Sandbaggers returned to duty and people still recovering from the summer’s floods faced new evacuations and road closings brought on by colossal amounts of rain in parts of Missouri and Kansas on Friday. An elderly man died when his car was washed off a flooded road.

“It’s just happening all over again,” said Eric Evans of Missouri’s Emergency Management Agency in Jefferson City.

In southeastern Kansas, at least 12 inches of rain fell Thursday night and Friday in Girard and 11 inches in Pittsburg, the National Weather Service said. Some places in southwestern Missouri got four to seven inches of rain, and more heavy rain was forecast in the area into the weekend.

An 80-year-old Liberal, Mo., man died Friday morning when his car was washed off a flooded Barton County road in southwestern Missouri, the state Highway Patrol said. Two women drowned Wednesday night in eastern Missouri when the new bout of flooding began. Floods during the summer were blamed for 48 deaths in the Midwest.

About 400 people were evacuated from three trailer courts and a housing subdivision near Pittsburg, and the three main roads leading into town were closed by high water. Many other roads in Crawford County were closed.

In Missouri, flood-weary residents along the Missouri and Mississippi rivers started sandbagging in some areas, including Kimmswick, where an earthen levee built to protect the town from summer floods had been taken down.

About 80 people were evacuated from homes along the Big River south of St. Louis, and the Missouri River was flowing through levees breached months ago in St. Charles County, said emergency management spokeswoman Petra Haws.

The evacuations in Kansas occurred along Cow Creek in Crawford County, which also had spotty power and phone outages.

“It’s a mess,” said police dispatcher Ruth Ketterman. “Water is over the roads everywhere.”

Cow Creek flooding also caused the Pittsburg water treatment plant to shut down Friday afternoon, said John Van Gorden, city public works director. The plant won’t restart until the waters recede, and residents were asked not to flush toilets.

Several inches of rain also fell overnight in central Illinois, and water from the rising Mississippi River forced the closing of one lane of U.S. 36 leading to a bridge from East Hannibal, Ill., to Hannibal, Mo. Workers were putting crushed rock on the highway to try to keep it open.

In Missouri, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers sent 100,000 sandbags to Jefferson County, where an emergency shelter was opened to house the latest evacuees.