Flooding March 18-19-20, 2008

Spring River at La Russell went from 3.12' at 12:00 midnight on Monday, March 17 to 13.50' at midnight on Tuesday, March 18, 2008. That is an average water gauge rise of 5.16" per hour. The River crested (Highway U in Jasper County) at 2:30am on Wednesday, March 19, 2008 at 13.68'. The graph shows the dramatic rise. [Click on the USGS graph to enlarge. Notice that USGS measured the gage height on March 20]

The Springfield News Leader called it Just as High as '93 Floods. Thursday, March 20, 2008. The sudden and ceaseless rain that began Monday left at least five people dead and drove hundreds of others out of their homes. Parts of southern Missouri received as much as 12 inches of rain, state officials said, and subsequent flooding sparked dozens of rescues, breached levees and closed hundreds of roads and a railroad line. With damage assessments barely under way, comparisons already were being made to the record floods that struck Missouri in 1993. "As far as severity, the levels we're seeing are just as high as the '93 floods," said Ryan Nicholls, director of the Springfield-Greene County Office of Emergency Management. [Click on photographs for close-up damage assessment. Notice that metal corrugated culvert was unearthed, and is now bent. The parking lot gravel was washed away, leaving exposed base rock]

Missouri State Emergency Management Situation Reports, Winter Flooding Event (by county).