KANSAS CITY, Mo. – The Kansas City District, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers continues to provide Mobile Liaison Teams to levee districts and local authorities that have requested assistance through their local emergency managers. We have four teams providing assistance and have plans to deploy more teams. The district has river stages in minor, moderate, and major flood stage at various locations along the Missouri River.
The focus of the district is public safety and we urge vigilance of all people near the flooded or potentially flooded areas. The district is committed to providing information and assistance during this flooding event as well as the recovery period.
Eight non-federal levees and one federal levee have overtopped and or breached in the Kansas City District’s area of responsibility. Additional non-federal levee systems may overtop today. The water levels are dangerously high and present great risk to people, property and levee systems. One federal levee, MRLS 500-R near Doniphan, Kan., has overtopped.
Our Emergency Operations Center has transitioned to activation at Level I, Full Activation, meaning 24-hour operations. The flood crest will move downstream, impacting both federal and non-federal levees systems along the Missouri River.
A good tool from the National Weather Service has forecasts for Missouri River levels and when crests of flood waters to reach cities in the area – for the latest information visit https://go.usa.gov/xEH6R. Please remember, forecasts can change if additional rain or snowmelt enter the system.
The Kansas City District has distributed over 470,000 sandbags and have more than 3.6 million on-hand, and have provided sandbag-filling machines to multiple locations with a two-person crew.
Releases from our Kansas reservoirs that feed into the Kansas River have been minimized with water being held in the lakes until conditions on the Missouri River improve. Releases from our Missouri reservoirs that feed the Osage River have been minimized to not add to the high flows on the Missouri.
The Kansas City District is closely monitoring conditions in the basin and providing information and assistance to state and local partners. The district is in this for the long haul and continues to work with state and local officials both during and in the recovery phase of the event.