A North Central Missouri farmer says their Missouri River levees are holding but they had a tremendous storm Sunday night that added to the swelling river and already saturated ground. Rob Korff, a corn and soybean grower in Norborne and Vice President of the Missouri Corn Growers Association, says they’ve had a great spring and crops are looking good – but flooding may take out a third of his crop if the levees don’t hold.
He says, “It’s kind of like waiting for your house to burn, just not knowing what day it is. We’ve had enough high water that most people have left the bottoms and relocated to higher ground. But, just their livelihood is at stake and food production and a lot of economic loss to the state of Missouri.”
It would take a miracle, says Korff, but the levees could hold, “You know, there’ve been a lot of levees overtopped and breached up north – in northwest Missouri, Nebraska and Iowa. That’s the sad part about it. You almost have to have somebody else suffer so you can survive.”
He says the Corps of Engineers- aware of the massive snow pack up north – waited too late to release that upstream water.
“Our flood stage is 20 feet at our Waverly gauge and the river levels were 10, 11 feet last November, December, January, February – you know, and why they didn’t let more water out back then – that’s a good question that they need to answer.”
Korf says he’s encouraged that Missouri Senator Roy Blunt and Congressman Sam Graves are working to hold the Corps accountable – and, in his words “put taxpayers first.”
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