Water levels are expected to exceed those of the catastrophic 1993 floods as the National Guard is called in, roads are closed and sewage leaks into waterways

This article is more than 4 years old

This article is more than 4 years old

Missouri has been engulfed by “historic and dangerous” flooding with water levels expected to crest at record levels in the coming days following a severe storm that has wreaked devastation throughout the southern and midwest United States.

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As the National Guard was called in to maintain security in evacuated areas, state governor Jay Nixon said on Tuesday that the floods, in which 13 people have been killed, could “go to levels never seen before”. Twelve of the victims were killed when their vehicles were swept away, he said.

The rare winter deluge, which threatens a repeat of the catastrophic 1993 floods, shut down parts of two interstates on Tuesday and has also caused chaos in neighbouring Illinois where inmates from a state prison had to be transferred. Five people have been killed in Illinois.



US army engineers said water from the rising Mississippi river and its tributaries threatened to spill over 19 federal levees, putting hundreds of homes in jeopardy. Several days of torrential rain caused sewage to flow unfiltered into waterways.

Nixon said that although the storm system that has claimed more than 40 lives throughout the region had passed, the threat had not gone away as river levels continued to rise.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Flooded homes in Pacific, Missouri. Photograph: Huy Mach/AP

“Water levels in some locations are predicted to exceed the historic crest in the great flood of 1993 which caused widespread devastation,” Nixon told reporters on Tuesday.

The Meramec river near St Louis was expected to get to more than 3 feet (90 centimeters) above the previous record by late this week.



The river on Tuesday spilled over the top of the levee at West Alton, Missouri, about 20 miles (30 kilometres) north of St Louis. Mayor William Richter ordered any of the town’s approximately 520 residents who had not already evacuated to get out of harm’s way.

“Access to and from town will be lost in a matter of hours,” the local Rivers Pointe fire district said in an alert. Video from local news helicopters showed homes in West Alton with water almost at roof levels.

Residents in Arnold scrambled to find hotels or move to shelters. Sarah Quinn, 18, said she and her great-grandparents were moving to a hotel room after police turned off the power at her subdivision. Her sister, grandmother and other relatives decided to brave it out without power because they wanted to stay in their homes and vehicles to look after their pets.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Hundreds of volunteers gather at River Des Peres Park in St Louis on Tuesday to fill sandbags. Photograph: Huy Mach/AP

“I’ve never had this happen before. We’ve had simple flooding in the back of our subdivision and we’ve had to sandbag before, but it wasn’t this severe,” said Quinn, who spoke to Reuters by telephone, from her job in a local restaurant.

In another eastern Missouri town, Union, water from the normally docile Bourbeuse river reached the roof of a McDonald’s and several other businesses. The river reached an all-time high Tuesday, nearly 20 feet (six meters) above flood stage.

Interstate 44 was closed near the central Missouri town of Rolla, and a 10-mile (16-kilometer) section of Interstate 70 was shut down in southern Illinois before it was reopened late Tuesday afternoon. Hundreds of smaller roads and highways were also closed across the two states, and flood warnings were in effect.

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In St Louis, more than 100 volunteers turned out in blustery and cold conditions to fill sandbags where a flooded waterway threatened hundreds of homes.

The Des Peres river is a man-made storm sewer channel that flows through south St Louis into the Mississippi, a few miles south of the Anheuser-Busch brewery. The channel is deep enough that flooding isn’t a concern under normal conditions. But there is nothing normal about this December flood.

The Mississippi is expected to reach nearly 15ft above flood stage on Thursday at St Louis, which would be the highest since 1993.

Maureen Hooch, 57, volunteered to fill sandbags in the heat of that July 1993 flood. She was back at it Tuesday in St Louis.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Wind-blown waves from Lake Michigan break around the Shedd aquarium as a winter storm moved across Illinois on Monday. Photograph: Charles Rex Arbogast/AP

“The last time I was out here it was 1,000 degrees,” Hooch recalled. “They had a bus you could get on to cool off. I prefer the cold. When you work, you warm up.”

Alderman Larry Arnowitz said up to 500 homes could be threatened if the Des Peres rose much more than projected. He was confident that with no rain in the forecast for the next several days – and with the help of the thousands of sandbags – everything would be fine. But Lisa Muxo, 45, said her basement was already taking on water.

“These are our neighbors, our friends,” said Muxo, who brought her teenage son and three of his friends to help sandbag. “We need to help each other.”

The high water was blamed on the shutdown of a wastewater treatment plant on Monday just south of St Louis, causing sewage to go directly into nearby rivers and streams. The Metropolitan Sewer District of St Louis said the Fenton wastewater treatment plant, which is designed for 6.75m gallons a day of flow, was treating nearly 24m gallons a day at the time of the malfunction.

One of the two wastewater plants in Springfield, Missouri, also failed, allowing partially treated sewage to flow into a river.

The US Coast Guard closed a five-mile portion of the Mississippi near St Louis due to flooding. Captain Martin Malloy cited high water levels and fast currents in the river, which is a vital transportation hub for barges that carry agricultural products and other goods.

In central and southern Illinois, flood warnings were in effect a day after a winter storm brought sleet and icy rain. Major flooding was occurring along the Kankakee, Illinois, Sangamon and Vermilion rivers.

An Illinois prison with nearly 3,700 inmates was preparing for possible flooding from the Mississippi river. Illinois department of corrections spokeswoman Nicole Wilson said that employees and emergency work crews at the Menard correctional center near Chester are filling sandbags and “working around the clock”.

The maximum security prison is on lockdown, and visits have been suspended. Officials also anticipate having to bring in hundreds of portable toilets in case the prison’s water service is shut down.

The midwest was not alone. Heavy rain continued in parts of the south, such as Georgia and eastern Alabama, which has in parts seen more than 14in of rain since 21 December.

Storms swept through New Mexico, Texas and many southern states over the Christmas weekend leaving at least 43 people dead.