Several areas across the state have been impacted by ongoing flooding. The Missouri State Emergency Management Agency, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the Missouri State Highway Patrol, the Missouri Department of Transportation, the Missouri National Guard, and multiple volunteer organizations are providing assistance to numerous communities on the Missouri, Grand, and Mississippi Rivers.
The Missouri State Emergency Operations Center (SEOC) is activated at a Level 3 for the ongoing flooding event and is currently staffed with liaisons from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers St. Louis and Kansas City Districts. A Missouri National Guard liaison is also embedded at the SEOC. Among the resources deployed, there have been 1,093,500 sandbags delivered across the state, 6.8 miles of plastic, multiple pumps, and all available sandbagging machines.
The State of Missouri received a Major Presidential Disaster Declaration, FEMA-4435-DR, on May 20, 2019 which designated 13 counties for the FEMA Public Assistance Program with an estimated $25 million in damages. The 13 counties were primarily located in the northwest and southeast areas of the state. The incident period for FEMA-4435-DR started on March 11, 2019 and ended on April 16, 2019 when the last river gauge at Saverton went out of major flood stage.
The next severe storm system occurred on April 29, 2019 which was 13 days after the end of the incident period for FEMA-4435-DR and exceeded the 72 hour break in damages for continuation of an incident period per Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) regulations. The severe storm system which occurred on April 29, 2019 primarily impacted counties in southwest Missouri with tornadoes, high winds, flooding and flash flooding. SEMA’s Recovery Division started tracking a new incident period as a result of this severe storm event. River gauges on the Mississippi went back into major flood stage continuing this incident period. Prolonged inundation and ground failure started occurring in the cities of Caruthersville and New Madrid also continuing the incident period. Back to back severe storm systems statewide and the severe storm system impacting the state on May 22, 2019 which produced tornadoes statewide are included in the ongoing incident period of “April 29, 2019 and continuing”.
To learn more about the Federal Disaster Declaration process visit here: https://sema.dps.mo.gov/recover/federal-disaster-declaration-process.php