ST. JOSEPH, Mo. — As the Missouri River rises, the city of St. Joseph, Missouri, is working to be prepared.
For the last three days, hundreds of volunteers have been pitching in to help prepare for a rising tide.
Together, the volunteers made 106,680 sandbags to help keep the water from impacting businesses and homes.
“There were some points we were having pallets being loaded in what felt like 60 seconds,” said Eli Hacker with AmeriCorps St. Louis. “The forklift was just coming and picking them up and turning them almost immediately.”
Less than four miles away at the city’s Remington Nature Center, neighbors stopped to take pictures and videos of the fast-moving, rising Missouri River.
The center’s parking lot was covered with water. The boat ramps to the river were blocked off.
“I just hope it doesn’t get super bad. That’s all I worry about,” said Donald Galloway, who remembers the flood of 1993, which flooded the entire city.
According to the city’s public information officer, Mary Robertson, sandbags have been placed along the low points of the levee.
The extra thousand sandbags will be used as needed.
Robertson said breaks upstream have actually helped relieve some of the water near the city.
“This isn’t our first rodeo,” she said.
