Latest storm helps set new monthly rainfall record in Hannibal

If you thought October was a wet month, you were right. In fact, with the latest round of rain Hannibal now has set a new precipitation record for the month of October, according to records at the Hannibal Water Filter Plant.
The rainfall that fell Thursday and early Friday in Hannibal - 2.06 inches - pushed the city’s monthly total to 11.46 inches. That eclipses the old standard of 11.37 inches set in 1985.
In case you’re wondering, the average monthly total for October in Hannibal is 3.24 inches.
The latest soaking rain did not come as a surprise to the National Weather Service.
“We’ve been monitoring the potential of a heavy rain event here for several days,” said Mark Fuchs, a hydrologist with the National Weather Service, adding that the heaviest rainfall from the system fell in Arkansas, Louisiana and eastern Texas. “We’re certainly getting our share up into eastern Missouri. We’ve had heavy amounts, over 3 inches in parts of Northeast Missouri, and we’ve got flooding forecast to happen or currently happening across most of the tributaries across Northeast Missouri and Western Illinois.”
Fuchs is not expecting the flooding to be terribly severe or long lived.
“Most of it will be minor flood. There will be some areas that could approach moderate flooding, but for the most part it will be minor flooding with maybe some county roads flooded in spots,” he said.
In addition to Hannibal’s 2.08 inch total, other 24-hour rainfall amounts according to the NWS were: Edina, 3.58; Troy, 3.49; Louisiana, 3.39; Saverton, 3.15; Bowling Green, 2.98; Vandalia, 2.48; New London, 2.14; Clarksville, 2.10; Canton, 1.68; Quincy, Ill., 1.48; Palmyra, 1.45; Shelbina, 1.43; Taylor, 1.30.
All the rainfall has caused problems for motorists. An accident blamed on wet pavement claimed the life of a 26-year-old Canton woman Thursday afternoon in Clark County.
Numerous state-maintained roads across Northeast Missouri have been closed by the Missouri Department of Transportation because of high water. For a list of road closures visit http://www.modot.org/ on the traveler information map.
MoDOT reduced traffic to one lane on the north and southbound lanes of U.S. 61, just north of Troy at the Cuivre River bridges as crews worked to clear debris from under both the north and southbound bridges.
The level of Mark Twain Lake is being closely monitored by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers following large amounts of precipitation in the lake’s watershed. Major boat launch facilities and campgrounds are open although some smaller access areas are now closed.
To check daily lake levels go to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, St. Louis District, River & Reservoir Daily Report on the web at http://mvs-wc.mvs.usace.army.mil/dresriv.html. At last report the lake’s level was 617.36, which was up 0.78 of a foot from the previous day.
Despite the heavy rain in Hannibal, few problems resulted. The Hannibal Board of Public Works blamed the storm for a power “blink” at 12:54 a.m. Friday that impacted 1,125 customers served by the Oakwood substation.
The fire department had no water related calls, although it was ready to roll.
“That’s always the potential when we get rain like that. I know Bear Creek was really rolling,” said John Baker, training officer with the HFD. “We try to keep all of our equipment in a state of readiness so if something does come up we’re pretty much ready to go. We didn’t do anything out of the ordinary other than just have things ready to go.”
No street department personnel were called out overnight because of street flooding.