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State governors meet to discuss Missouri River

Missouri Governor Mike Parson says progress has been made for flood control along the Missouri River.

Parson and the governors from Nebraska, Iowa, and Kansas met in Omaha last week. Parson says they cannot let up on flood control efforts, even though the region is dealing with drought…

“I don’t want to go back to the old days, just because we haven’t had a flood and most of us in this region are in a drought so it’s out of sight, out of mind,” he says. “What happens in everyone of our states affects everyone of us.”

At least 1.2 million acres of Missouri farmland were affected by flooding in 2019 and that’s what encouraged the development of a statewide flood advisory working group. Missouri River levels are low in many places due to the drought.

“When you look at all of our states and what the rivers do for us, the economy is big and we have to keep river navigation open and when river levels go down and you have to worry about freezing, the concern is power plants.”

The governors have been working alongside the Army Corps of Engineers to speed up the process of rebuilding levees.

Story credit goes to MissouriNet.