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There were at least 60 state highways across northern Missouri closed because of flooding Thursday morning, according to the Missouri Department of Transportation Traveler Information Map.
That’s more than double the number posted on the map Wednesday morning. Marty Liles of MODOT told reporters they continue to monitor the state’s roads, deploying flagging operations or barricades depending on conditions.
“As we continue to get some more rainfall, and as those floodwaters that were in the northern part of the state start heading south, we might see other routes that are affected as well,” Liles said.
Liles said each time big rain events happen there’s a certain amount of flooding that’s going to occur.
“Every day we go out there, after a rainfall event, and check those roadways, and close those down so we make sure we don’t have the travelling public going through those routes and into the flood routes.”
Sergeant Jacob Angle of Troop-H says the Missouri State Highway Patrol discourages anyone from proceeding if you see water over the roadway.
“Even if you think it’s just inches of water, it only takes inches of water to float a vehicle,” Angle said. “So if you see water over the roadway, don’t attempt to cross it.”
“You don’t think it’s very deep, and you get in it, the vehicle starts floating, you’re swept away, and it can be very rapid.”
That’s precisely what happened to several motorists near Mound City during the severe weather event Tuesday night. Squaw Creek flowed over its banks very quickly after the area received eight to ten inches of rainfall. Angle says the water on the highway was at least three feet deep. Three vehicles were swept into the median where the water was about twice that deep.
When rescue workers arrived, some of the occupants were perched on top of their vehicles. That’s when crews from Troop-H, MoDOT, the Conservation Department, St Joe Fire, and the Holt and Andrew County Sheriff’s offices took extreme measures. They used heavy construction equipment, and a boat, to navigate the fast-moving waters and pull eight victims to safety.
“Considering the area we were dealing with, and we had to get vehicles around the floodwater and navigate to get people there, traffic was backing up, you know we had a lot of variables to deal with,” Angle said.
“If you take all that into account, I would consider our response spot on, about as quick as it could have been,” he said.
“With that collaborative effort, we saved eight lives last night, in rapidly-rising flash-flood waters.”
Officials with four of the agencies gathered for a news conference Wednesday to lay out details of their efforts the night before.
(Pictured left to right, are George Albert of the St Joseph Fire Department, Sgt. Jacob Angle of the Missouri State Highway Patrol, Marty Liles of MoDot, and Robert Wolken of the Missouri Department of Conservation.)