City Prepares for Missouri River flooding
Public Information Office | March 2019
UPDATE as of 10 a.m. March 23:
Please avoid floodwaters, particularly near Second Street where flooding has come into contact with sewer water at our Water Treatment Plant, 1800 S. Second St.
Kansas Highway 5 leading south from the City of Lansing is closed. Do not drive onto flooded roads.
UPDATE as of 5 p.m. March 22: Revised forecast of the Missouri River is set to 31.4 feet Saturday at noon. Without our floodwall and sandbagging, this is the rate at which the Riverfront Community Center's gymnasium floor would flood. City staff will be working throughout the evening of March 22 to build the wall 1-foot higher to bolster our flood preparations. Floodwaters are expected to reach the parking lots south of the Riverfront Community Center. They are now closed. List of closures includes:
City Brush Site, 1803 S. Second St.
Leavenworth Landing Park
Riverfront Park
Three Mile Creek walking trail
Marked areas of Second Street
ADDED 3/22: Parking Lots south of the Riverfront Community Center
Community volunteers are not needed.
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UPDATE as of 3/21:
While no homes are in danger of flooding in the City of Leavenworth at this time, employees have spent the past week preparing municipal facilities for a predicted 29.9-foot rise in the Missouri River. The Advanced Hydrologic Prediction Service of the National Weather Service predicts the river to reach its crest by 4 p.m. Friday and last for about a day. It will take several days for the floodwaters to recede.
Closed facilities include:
City Brush Site, 1803 S. Second St.
Leavenworth Landing Park
Riverfront Park
Three Mile Creek walking trail
Marked areas of Second Street
ADDED 3/22: Parking Lots south of the Riverfront Community Center
There are sandbags near the Water Treatment Plant, which treats sewer water, and adjacent to the 2014 floodwall installed at the Riverfront Community Center. Flooding is not expected to overtop these areas. Public Works Director Mike McDonald said that the City plans to leave the sandbags in place with the predictions of future flooding along the River in 2019.
McDonald did caution that if the City of Leavenworth experiences a flash flood event related to significant rainfall, other parts of the city could experience flooding.
During flooding in 2011, the Missouri River reached 30.8 feet. In 1993, it crested at more than 35.34 feet.
See the latest predictions of the Advanced Hydrologic Prediction Service here:
https://water.weather.gov/ahps2/hydrograph.php?wfo=eax&gage=levk1&prob_t...
