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Farmers work together amid flooding
Photo courtesy Monroe County (Illinois) Farm Bureau
Some river levels in Missouri and Illinois are expected to exceed those of the great flood of 1993. Rhonda Devault – with the USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service in Union – in eastern Missouri’s Franklin County, says farms are flooding and some livestock is unaccounted for, but, “We’ve had a lot of folks that have joined together and helped each other out to try to move some grain out, try to get some animals out. You know, we’re a pretty tight-knit community, the farming community is. We help each other every chance we get. This is definitely a…a test of things.”
Missouri Governor Jay Nixon has activated the National Guard to help with evacuation and assistance. West Alton has been evacuated and there are hundreds of road closures across Missouri, including in St. Louis and all lanes of I-44 at Jerome, near Rolla.
On Tuesday, Illinois Governor Bruce Rauner issued a state disaster proclamation for seven counties affected by flooding: Calhoun, Jackson, Jersey, Madison, Monroe, Randolph and St. Clair. The National Weather Service says rainfall between December 23rd and 28th averaged about seven inches in the declared Illinois counties.
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