ST. JOSEPH, Mo. — Flooding and other damage from wet weather does not let up farther north you get in Missouri.
The Missouri Highway Patrol’s marine division in northwest Missouri responded to nearly 30 water rescues since heavy rains moved through the area on Thursday night.
Water on the roadways continued to be a major issue on Friday. Route 6 in Clair was completely underwater, covered by one of the rivers that feeds into the Platte River.
The Platte River is causing major problems on a bigger road: Highway 36. As of Friday afternoon, the road was closed going both direction just east of St. Joseph which was causing a lot of confusion for drivers.
There are multiple side roads that would appear to be workaround to the closure but most of those roadways are also covered in water. FOX 4 witnessed multiple vehicles driving through deep flooding on roadways – but even when the vehicles make it past the first areas of flooding – they often can’t get much further because of more areas of deeper flooding.
Worms struggled through knee-high water in nearby cornfields, while water and the occasional fish rushed over roads farther north.
The situation delayed the hunt for parts for a dairy cow milking machine.
“We’ll milk ’em by hand if nothing else,” Brendan Tubbs, from Mound City, said.
“Whenever I saw water across all the land in the bottoms up home, I knew that it was going to be a bad day,” Tubbs said.
“Oh I know these roads. We’ve drove around here all the time. We farmed a thousand acres down in Maysville,” Tubbs said.
Other drivers are not as familiar with the area.
“What’s going on? Not a sign anywhere,” Dave Wade, a driver from Phoenix, Arizona said.
“Then all of a sudden – road closed. I’m like ‘God.’ Where are all these people going. None of them know. And look how many are backed up back there,” Wade said.
“I was going east to the Arch in St. Louis. Mom’s never seen it. I’m not going up in it but she will,” Wade said.
“I had my map routed. But I guess I’m going to have to change it now,” Wade said.
There is timeline yet on the re-opening of Highway 36. Water levels are actually continuing to rise here with the river expected to crest sometime Friday night unless there is more rain.
