ST. LOUIS — Inside a downtown St. Louis Federal building, the Emergency Management office is constantly monitoring river levels along the Mississippi River.
The Army Corps of Engineers has engineers observing the condition of the levees. With the flooding along the river, a couple of levees have been topped north of St. Louis flooding mainly agricultural areas. Many of the levees north of St. Louis have had the water very close to the top of the levee in the last couple of weeks.
John Osterhage, Chief of the St. Louis Emergency Operations, said the engineers are looking for any problems along the levees and have the expertise to recommend steps that need to be taken to insure the levees don't fail.
There are federal levees and non federal levees controlled by individual levee districts which oversee the maintenance and upkeep of their levees. Non federal levees usually protect to a much lower river level than the federal levees.
Along the eleven mile stretch of flood wall protecting the City of St. Louis, the Corps completed a project a few years ago to update the flood gates and any problems that came to light after the flood of '93. South of St. Louis, most of the levees are federal levees and Osterhage said they are performing well.
The Emergency Management office offers resources to local and state governments to plan ahead for the flood season. During times of high water when the situation warrants, the Corps can provide resources such as additional sandbags and poly sheets used to help hold back the rising rivers.
The concern for the remainder of the spring is the amount of rain that will fall. Osterhage said the rivers are already quite high as we move through the spring season which typically produces the most amount of rain during the year.