Thursday, October 8, 2009

Flooding threatens Missouri and Kansas

Zachary Hoffman in Disaster News Network: Nearly 40 counties in Missouri and Kansas are under flash flood warnings due to slow moving thunderstorms that will bring more than five inches of rain to some areas in the next 24 hours, according to the National Weather Service.

In Boone County, Missouri five water rescues have been performed from flooding caused by the three inches of rain that had already fallen before flash flood warnings were issued. “Most of the rescues were performed before dawn,” said Dispatch Supervisor Chuck Mastalski for Boone County Emergency Management. “It was dark and people were taken by surprise.” “There are no injuries to speak of, just a lot of frightened motorists,” said Mastalski.

There has been no reports of home damage due to flooding as of yet, but for Boone County and the rest of the state rain is expected to keep falling. … This system of thunderstorms stretches for nearly 800 miles from Texas to Illinois and will move northeast towards New York, bringing heavy rain over large portions of the country.

…According to some meteorologist what makes this system particularly threatening for flooding is a weather event called training. Training is when a series of storms follow each other in quick succession along a boundary line, which provides no relief from heavy rains for a prolonged period of time….

River breaching a dam in Maryville, Missouri, in 2007, shot by Americasroof , Wikimedia Commons, under the Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike 2.5 License

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