Water continues to rise across Missouri

Floodwaters rose still higher across Missouri on Thursday, leading residents to remove valuables from their homes and fill sandbags to protect river communities.

Near-record flooding that inundated the village of Big Lake this week broke more levees Thursday, and water levels were expected to peak in some spots this weekend. In other areas, however, the danger appeared to be passing.

The Missouri River had fallen a few inches Thursday near Craig, where inmates from a St. Joseph prison and National Guardsmen spent Wednesday sandbagging, trying to protect the water treatment plant, schools and an ethanol plant.

The water got within “a hillbilly’s whisker from going over in several places,” Holt County Sheriff Kirby Felumb said Thursday.

State officials said dozens of levees -- most protecting agricultural land -- had been topped or breached since a weekend of drenching thunderstorms raised rivers and generated tornadoes that claimed 13 lives in Kansas. No serious injuries or deaths had been reported in the flooding, said Brian Hauswirth, a spokesman for the State Emergency Management Agency.

The most recent levee break occurred Thursday afternoon between the towns of DeWitt and Brunswick, spilling Missouri River water on farmland, slowing traffic on U.S. 24 and damaging railroad tracks. Another Carroll County breach south of Norborne had flooded about 15,000 acres of cropland and left about 75 rural homes surrounded with Missouri River water.

Big Lake, in Holt County in northwestern Missouri, suffered some of the worst damage in flooding Monday night and Tuesday, after several levees were breached. The Missouri State Water Patrol has rescued 32 people since flooding began, most in the Big Lake area.

By Thursday, rooftops were still all that could be seen of some of the 450 to 475 homes flooded in Big Lake. Authorities spent Thursday taking residents to rescue their pets and retrieve medication.

“We can’t do much for the property,” Felumb said. “There’s no need to let a family pet die if we have resources.”

Statewide, the flooding has led to the evacuation of several hundred people, including some residents of Levasy and the Ray County town of Hardin, where a 1993 flood surge toppled headstones and unearthed hundreds of caskets.

In Levasy, a breached levee left at least 15 homes with up to 8 feet of water in them, said Deputy Ronda Montgomery, a spokeswoman for the Jackson County Sheriff’s Department.

State officials said two other communities -- Rushville and Napoleon -- were within 500 feet of levees that were broken or overtopped. But the damage was less extensive, Hauswirth said.

Although the river crests were lower than forecast in many areas, residents remained anxious. Many were here for the 1993 floods, among the most costly in U.S. history.

In Jefferson City, the Missouri River was expected to crest Sunday at 8.7 feet above flood stage, which could cause flooding at the municipal airport and other low-lying areas below the bluff where the state Capitol sits.