Gasconade River Record Levels At Jerome

[lee G.]

Al, I bet thats the reason you never see a old log cabin next to the creek. Great granddad sure was smart!

[Old plug]

AL as far as flood plains go you cannot even trust the recirds. Here at LOZ in that part falling in Morgan county someone changed a lot if the lot elevations in the books. I was told I needed flood insurance and the house elevation is more than 10 feet above the top of the Dam. At the same time there is a flat area at the back of the next cove that I have myself seen water in before it was developed and they are suppose to above the flood plain. I am very suspicious if those alterations. Of course fouled up records in Morgan County are the more the norm than the exception.

[moguy1973]

The thing is, you can look at a contour map and see where the river used to flow...Don't build in those areas and you shouldn't ever have a flooding problem.

Back in 93 with the big Mississippi flood, the Illinois town of Valmeyer was completely flooded. The town lay in the Mississippi flood plain at the bottom of a cliff. After the flood, the entire town picked up and moved atop the cliffs 400' above the flood plain. Voila, no more flood problems.

[Blazerman]

Plenty of people choose to live close to a river, creek or stream because they enjoy the location. Most, like me, know the risks of flooding and choose to except the risk.

Back in 1973 I was 16 and we rented a place at Twin Springs on the Meramec. Even though we were close to the river we were so far above it I never in a million years thought the river would make it over the bank it front of us let alone reach our living area. The first bank was probably 30 vertical feet above the normal river channel and our place was on stilts and another 8 foot above the ground. And the river got 4 foot high in our living area. That showed me how high a river could get and I never forgot it.

So when we bought our place off highway K once again we were at least 30 vertical feet above the river. While we were standing there looking down at it my wife said do you think the river could ever get this high? And I said yep no doubt. So we planned on it and stored much of the stuff we didn’t want wet up on higher shelves and didn’t store anything there over the winter that we didn’t want to lose because of flooding.

And in 08 the river got up to our upper level and our garage had 4 foot of water in it. I along with many of my neighbors were standing on the k bridge looking at the river which was about 4 foot below the bridge and I was thinking this river has to be 50 foot deep right now. And I was amazed at how high it was. It normally is about 2 foot deep there during summer pool.

It was a big mess and I am sure I was moaning and groaning a lot while we were cleaning up but we really didn’t lose anything I was upset about. Luckily it didn’t get into our living area because we are on stilts again. But if it had we would of taken the insurance money and rebuilt.

Because I like being close to the river and except the risks. Just like the rest of the people on our street who cleaned up and went back to enjoying the location.

[Wayne SW/MO]

Some of the old towns on the Missouri were built there because river traffic was necessary for the economy. Since that is no longer important a lot of them have gradually backed away from the river.

Floods have always happened and they always will, fortunately it's detrimental to property and not life as a rule. It would be hard to blame the recent deaths on the magnitude of the flood because those types happen under conditions of even minor flooding.

[Greasy B]

Floods aren’t all bad; the ones in the eighties that wiped out the club house blight on the lower Meramec were the best thing that could have happened. Without enlightened zoning laws or any public desire to preserve riparian corridors floods are all we have.

[Wayne SW/MO]

Unfortunately some rivers will suffer more from floods. The Niangua has continuously degraded with every flood following bank beautification project by people like Redbeard. He's no the only one, Hidden Valley across from 64 access clean all the brush and small trees away from the bank making it appear improved while it exposed tons of gravel to the rivers flow.

A state DNR that was on the ball would protect the riparian, but I doubt that many in Missouri's DNR know what the term is, if they do they show no signs of giving a you know what.

[moguy1973]

Picture of I-44 the other day when it was inundated and closed at MM173

[moguy1973]

The BNSF RR bridge at the confluence of the Gasconade and the Little Piney

[Al Agnew]

I have no problem with anybody who chooses to live next to the river and accepts the risks involved. What I have a problem with, and have no real sympathy for, are people who then cry and moan when they get flooded out and all their stuff gets ruined. Like you didn't realize that was not only possible but WAS going to happen at some point? And that's who the news people always interview just to get people's sympathy.

Some flood facts...record floods on a few rivers:

Meramec at Sullivan--1915, 33 foot rise, 90,000 cfs estimated.

St. Francis at Sam A. Baker Park--Dec. 3, 1982, 35 foot rise, 155,000 cfs.

Current at Van Buren--1904, 29 foot rise, 153,000 cfs estimated.

And finally, the champion of them all...Buffalo River at St. Joe, Dec. 3, 1982, 53 foot rise, 158,000 cfs. The gauge on the Buffalo at Hwy. 14 just above Buffalo Point was not in full time use at this time, but the Buffalo there rose an estimated 70 FEET!

To put those volumes of water in perspective...the normal flow of the Mississippi River at the Chester bridge below St. Louis on this date is 152,000 cfs. The normal flow of the Missouri River at St. Charles is 67,000 cfs.