Mo. Officials Preparing for More Flooding
Mother Nature is challenging Missourians again. With flooding likely along the Missouri River, Gov. Jay Nixon and other officials are heading to St. Joseph today to discuss preparations.
Seasonal flooding along the Missouri is being worsened this year as the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers releases historic amounts of water from upstream dams in the Dakotas. Officials in northwestern Missouri's Atchison and Holt counties have already put residents in flood-prone areas on alert to evacuate as needed.
Nixon will be joined today by officials from the Missouri National Guard and the departments of public safety and natural resources.
Mo. Program Provides Jobs in Joplin
The state of Missouri is creating a program to provide more than 400 temporary jobs for workers left unemployed by the Joplin tornado.
Gov. Jay Nixon was in Joplin Wednesday to announce the Missouri Disaster Recovery Jobs Program, using an initial $5.8 million investment funded through the federal Workforce Investment Act. The workers will assist with clean-up and humanitarian efforts in Jasper and Newton counties, which were struck by the May 22 tornado that killed 134 people and damaged more than 8,000 homes and apartments, along with more than 500 commercial structures. Nixon says putting people back to work is a vital part of the process of rebuilding Joplin.
One Year to Restore Lambert Airport after Tornado
Officials at Lambert Airport in St. Louis say it could take up to a full year to fully recover from the April 22 tornado.
The twister that damaged hundreds of homes in St. Louis County made a direct hit on the airport. No one was killed but the airport was badly damaged, especially Concourse C.
Airport director Rhonda Hamm-Niebruegge told the St. Louis Airport Commission on Wednesday that preliminary engineering reports indicate restoration of Concourse C could take nine to 12 months. She says the structure is intact, but the roof must be replaced along with many of the windows in Terminal 1 that had been in place since 1956.
