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Floodwater surrounds homes and businesses in Pacific, Mo. A rare winter flood threatened nearly two dozen federal levees in Missouri and Illinois as rivers rose, prompting many evacuations.(Photo: Jeff Roberson, AP)
As floodwaters continue to rise<span style="color: Red;">*</span>along the lower Mississippi River, it’s clear the slow-motion disaster will be among the costliest wintertime flood events in U.S. history.<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Officials are simply trying to tally the price tag.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) said Thursday that<span style="color: Red;">*</span>damage from the floods will top $1 billion. That number is likely to climb as the unpredictable and overflowing<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Mississippi continues its march south.
?<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Over the weekend and into next week, floodwaters will continue to rise along the Mississippi River in Arkansas, Mississippi and Louisiana, including the cities of Greenville<span style="color: Red;">*</span>and Natchez, Miss., and Baton Rouge, according to AccuWeather.<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Minor-to-moderate flooding is <span style="color: Red;">*</span>possible<span style="color: Red;">*</span>south of Baton Rouge to New Orleans <span style="color: Red;">*</span>this month.
In recent weeks, the floods severely damaged homes, businesses and farms that line the Mississippi and its tributaries in Missouri and Illinois, where at least 25 deaths were blamed on the weather.
Once all the costs of lost business and damaged roads, bridges and public buildings are added up, it's a "safe bet" the total loss will exceed $1 billion, said Steve Bowen, a meteorologist with Aon Benfield, a global reinsurance firm based in London.
That estimate comes from<span style="color: Red;">*</span>preliminary damage assessment information from federal and local officials and on early insurance claims in affected areas.
For example, in and around the St. Louis area, floods have damaged or destroyed<span style="color: Red;">*</span>an estimated 7,100 structures, according to Missouri Gov.<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Jay Nixon, and at least a half-million tons of debris will need to be removed. Repairs to roads in St. Louis County will top $200 million.
In southwestern Missouri's Greene County,<span style="color: Red;">*</span>flood damage cost almost $1 million, according to the Springfield-Greene County Office of Emergency Management.
Government officials<span style="color: Red;">*</span>are <span style="color: Red;">*</span>calculating damage in Illinois,<span style="color: Red;">*</span>where<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Gov. Bruce Rauner issued state disaster declarations for 23 counties, mainly in central and southern parts of the state.
Most of the costliest wintertime flood disasters on record<span style="color: Red;">*</span>occurred in the West. The highest price tags occurred with the <span style="color: Red;">*</span>California floods in 1995 that<span style="color: Red;">*</span>cost $5 billion, and the <span style="color: Red;">*</span>El Niño-driven West Coast floods in 1997 that cost $4 billion, Bowen said.
"That is what has made this current event so unique, since we don’t expect this kind of flooding in the Midwest and Mississippi Valley until the spring," he said.
Missouri picked up almost three times its average rainfall in November and December, said<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Kevin Trenberth of the National Center for Atmospheric Research. The Mississippi River at Cape Girardeau, Mo., set an all-time flood record of 48.86 feet last week, breaking a record set during the floods of 1993, the National Weather Service said.
The floods stem from heavy rains linked to El Niño and man-made climate change,<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Trenberth said.<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Such unusual rain and flooding at this time of year would have been outside the realm of possibility were it not for those outside factors, he said.
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Sudden and unexpected flooding caught residents off guard in a town 30 miles outside St. Louis. With little time to prepare, hundreds of homes flooded and the National Guard was sent in to help. VPC
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