Meramec River, MO Flood

The news of the flooding in Missouri has made the news even in Europe.  As many of you know, my family is from the St Louis area.  They weren't affected by the flooding.

In our driving about, we visited some areas prone to flooding.  We were amazed at how fast the waters rose.

The bridge on Hwy 61/67 just north of Herculaneum.

29 Dec

30 Dec

31 Dec

Hwy 61/67 and Hwy M in Barnhart

Dec 29 - looking south.  They put up a loose sand wall.

Dec 30 - sand wall washed down

Dec 31 - sand wall gone

Dec 30 and 31 (above car is on left in lower photo).

We had our own little misadventure too.  On the 30th the whole family headed up to south St. Louis for dinner out.

As we crossed over the Meramec River north of Arnold, this is how the river looked.

When we left the restaurant about an hour later, I-55 South from I-270 was gridlocked.

We were somewhere in that mess...

It took us 2 hours to make a distance that usually takes us 12 minutes!

When we got to the bridge, this is what we encountered!

MODOT was in the process of shutting down the North bound lane.  We watched the last few cars go across.

Not long after we made it over, the South bound lanes were also closed.

I-55 reopened on January 1st (I think).  

For our trip home, we couldn't do our usual route south.  All bridges crossing the Mississippi were closed due to flooded approaches.  We had to go North into Illinois first before we could come back South.

Wow.