Local farmer relieved river in retreat

Last week’s heavy rainfall is still keeping many farmers out of their fields. For Mike Haden, it wasn’t just the water falling from the sky that had him fretting over the weekend. Runoff from last week’s heavy rain had pushed the Mississippi River out of its banks and into an unprotected area he farms in eastern Marion County, near BASF.
“I didn’t know how much water was coming from the north, or if it was on the way up or what was going on,” said Haden Monday morning.
Haden, who farms 333 acres, reports that the river had encroached upon approximately four of 62 unprotected acres.
“At about 19 feet is when it gets into the field, so over the weekend the river got up and into the beans just a little bit, approximately 4 inches,” he said.
The water should not cause a major problem for the beans, according to Haden.
“It didn’t cover the whole plant. Maybe the lower parts on the stem, it might hurt those,” he said. “It was up and then right back down so it probably won’t have too much affect.”
The impact on Haden will be the length of time the wet ground will keep him away.
“It’s awful wet,” he said, estimating it might be 10 days before he can get back into the field that went under water.
River forecasters were reporting Monday that, barring any additional rainfall, local rivers should continue their retreat. As of Monday afternoon, minor river flooding was still being reported in Clarksville, Louisiana, Saverton, Taylor and Ewing. In Hannibal, moderate flooding was being seen.
In Hannibal, after reaching a weekend crest of 19.78 feet, the river was down to 19.17 feet by early Monday afternoon, according to the National Weather Service. The Army Corps of Engineers is predicting the river will continue to drop Tuesday (18.2 feet), Wednesday (17.0 feet) and Thursday. (16.1 feet). Technical flood stage in Hannibal is 16 feet.
Elsewhere along the Mississippi River, the weekend crests were 18.77 in Saverton, 18.32 feet in Louisiana and 28.81 feet in Clarksville. All three sites had seen the river fall by Monday afternoon. In Saverton it was down 0.54 of a foot, in Louisiana 0.19 of a foot and in Clarksville 0.1 of a foot.
In Saverton, the river is expected to be back below flood stage by Thursday.