Flood in Marion County, Missouri

The Mississippi River at Hannibal, MO crested at 29.54 feet on 6/18/2008. This is the second highest crest ever recorded. The City of Hannibal escaped relatively unscathed as the flood wall and most levees north and south of town held due to work by the National Guard and volunteers. Plastic and sandbags were used to raise and cover about 60% of the levees in the County. The Mark Bottoms levee was over topped resulting in 19 homes being flooded. Highway 79 in the south part of Hannibal was closed. No other towns in the county were affected as the remainder of the land along the river is used for agriculture or conservation purposes. County Extension Service personnel estimated agricultural losses at $13.3 million. Emergency management personnel reported $7.1 million in infrastructure damages.

An extraordinary flood took place on the Mississippi River in June, resulting from two major rainfall events in Wisconsin and Iowa. The Wisconsin flooding resulted from two separate events, totaling more than 10 inches of rain over most of the southern third of the state. This resulted in record flooding for more than half of the forecast points across southeastern Wisconsin. In Iowa, two separate rain events generated record flooding at a dozen forecast points along the Cedar, Iowa, Wapsipinicon, and Mississippi Rivers. As the floodwaters moved south, the Mississippi River produced near-record flooding from Canton, MO to Clarksville, MO with major flooding also reported at Grafton, IL and Chester, IL. The high backwater on adjacent tributaries resulted in significant flooding along the North River at Palmyra, MO, the Cuivre River at Old Monroe, MO, the Illinois River at LaGrange, Meredosia, Valley City, and Hardin, IL, and the Meramec River at Arnold, MO. The Missouri River also experienced flooding at all points in the service area, with moderate flood crests reported at Jefferson City and Hermann, MO. Many roads across the flooded areas had to be closed for a couple of weeks. Several bridges across the Mississippi River were also affected. The older bridge across the Mississippi at Quincy, IL had to be closed as the flood water covered Highway 24 on the Missouri side. The Highway 54 bridge at Louisiana was closed due to flooding on the Illinois side.