3 Holt County towns already under water as levee breaches near Fortescue

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Photographer: KSHB Skytracker
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Posted: 06/23/2011

By: Steve Kaut
Contributor: Victoria Swoboda

FORTESCUE, Missouri - A levee that breached Thursday is affecting mostly just rural areas in Holt County, where at least three towns were already under water.

The breach was reported shortly after 1:30 p.m. along Levee #9 in a rural area south of Fortescue, a small town north of St. Joseph where most residents had already left a day earlier because of high waters.

Skytracker flew in Atchison County on Thursday after the breach. Click on the slideshow to the left to see images of the flooding.

High waters hit first in Corning on June 18. Just a day later, the water came into the town of Big Lake. Both cities have since been evacuated.

The 52 residents of Fortescue moved out Wednesday, and workers spent Thursday shoring up levees around the town of Craig.

According to the National Weather Service, rapid increases in water levels can be expected for locations south of Highway 159 and west of Highway 111 between Fortescue and Forest City. The area is north of St. Joseph, near the Squaw Creek Wildlife refuge.

The flash flood warning was set to expire in Holt County at 1:30 p.m. Friday, but flood warnings remained in effect for the remainder of the day in many other counties in northwestern Missouri and northeastern Kansas.

Holt County's neighbor to the north, Atchison County, saw a levee fail Thursday as well, prompting authorities to ask residents in the floodplain between Interstate 29 and the state line to move to higher ground.