Missouri River flood closes 100 miles of bridges
Baku, June 21 (AZERTAC). Drivers trying to cross from southeast Nebraska into Missouri and Iowa on Monday found bridges closed for more than 100 miles for safety reasons due to flooding and heavier water flows on the Missouri River.
Authorities said water flowing over two levees in northwest Missouri`s Holt and Atchison counties on Sunday closed U.S. Highways 159 and 136 in western Missouri, affecting bridge crossings at Rulo and Brownville in southeastern Nebraska.
With those closings, flooding has shut down all road bridges over the Missouri River for about 112 miles from just south of Omaha, Nebraska, to St. Joseph, Missouri. The Nebraska Highway 2 bridge at Nebraska City, Nebraska, closed earlier.
More bridges and railroad lines may have to close as the water continues to rise, officials said.
"We`ve never experienced anything like this," Iowa Department of Transportation spokeswoman Dena Gray-Fisher said.
Heavy rains and snow melt along the Missouri River valley have flooded areas from Montana through Missouri, forcing residents to shore up protections and evacuate their homes.
The bridge closures coincided with stepped-up releases of water from swollen reservoirs from Montana to South Dakota by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which is managing record flood waters this season in the Plains.
The Corps boosted water releases over the weekend from two dams -- Oahe above Pierre, South Dakota`s capital, and Big Bend Dam just downstream from that -- to make room for more flows expected with potentially heavy rains.
A toll bridge from Onawa, Iowa, to Decatur, Nebraska, may close, Gray-Fisher said. Other vulnerable bridges include one on U.S. 30 between Missouri Valley, Iowa, and Blair, Nebraska, and at U.S. 34 between Interstate 29 and Plattsmouth.
Union Pacific and Burlington Northern Santa Fe railroad tracks have been raised in some areas to escape flooding, according to company officials.
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