Flood — Cape Girardeau, Missouri

2016-01-01 to 2016-01-16 · near Hines Lndg, Cape Girardeau, Missouri

Event narrative

Mississippi River levels continued their climb from December, and record flooding occurred early in the month. At the Cape Girardeau river gage, the river crested at a new record of 48.86 feet on the evening of New Year's Day. The old record was 48.49 feet, which was set in August of 1993. Records at Cape Girardeau go back at least a century. The 2016 crest would likely have been higher if there had not been a levee break in Alexander County, Illinois. Flood stage at Cape Girardeau is 32 feet. The estimated acreage that was flooded was 24,000 acres, of which 17,000 was cropland. Much of the flooded acreage was in the diversion channel floodplain, which extends from Allenville east to Dutchtown and Scott City. Numerous roads were flooded, including Highway 74. Dozens of residences were inaccessible due to flooding. A number of businesses and homes were flooded, including about twenty homes and eight businesses in the city of Cape Girardeau. These homes and businesses were mainly in the Red Star neighborhood of Cape Girardeau and on the south side of the city near Highway 74. Firefighters rescued a man and his dog from one of the homes. A voluntary evacuation advisory was issued for the community of Allenville, which was completely surrounded by water. Flood walls and levees protect most of the city of Cape Girardeau. These structures held up during this record flood. To protect a concrete plant outside the levee system, crews built a 1,200 to 1,500-foot levee in a short period of time.

Wider weather episode

Flooding along parts of the Mississippi River exceeded the Great Flood of 1993. The primary rainfall event that triggered the historic flooding was a swath of 6 to 12 inches across central Missouri from December 26 to 28. The axis of heaviest rainfall extended roughly along Interstate 44 in Missouri, then northeast into central Illinois. The very wet pattern that developed during the second half of December gradually dried out in January. This allowed the Mississippi River to fall below flood stage during the middle part of the month. The duration and seasonal timing of this Mississippi River flood was exceptionally rare. Past historical Mississippi River floods have occurred during the warm season, and their duration was on the scale of months rather than weeks.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (37.5567, -89.5702)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 611090. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.