The latest local news, weather and high school sports in and around Columbia and Jefferson City

Missouri river floodwaters overnight reached the new levee that serves as the last line of defense for the Southwest Iowa town of Hamburg.

Officials in Iowa and Kansas now fight to contain their frustration along with the river.

And closer to home, Mid-Missouri governments have taken the first preparatory steps.

Right now, the Missouri River at Jefferson City is below its natural flood stage.  But it won't stay that way and on Wednesday, the Callaway County Commission met to plan for a flooded river valley.

“Callaway County is pretty rural in the area we have flooding issues and those people have been through this more than once,” said Gary Jungermann, presiding commissioner. “But we do have new people that live down there, people that have moved in since '93. They probably aren't aware of what that river can do when it gets out.”

So the county is preparing new flood maps, to show which areas are vulnerable at which river levels.  And when the water hits 28 feet, crews will begin to move sand to those locations..

Hundreds of miles upstream, the water continues to pour from the Gavin's Point Dam in South Dakota.  At the unprecedented rate of 150,000 cubic feet per second, this torrent is now traveling fast enough to dig the channel deeper. 

That could be helpful in lowering the river crests downstream.  But not at Hamburg, Iowa, where the water has already reached a hastily-constructed secondary levee, all that stands between the town and ten feet of standing water. 

Iowa Governor Terry Brandstad toured the area Wednesday evening, and expressed the frustration of local people who cannot understand why the corps of engineers did not begin the release much earlier to minimize the impact.

“There's a lot of questions that need to be answered,” Brandstad said. “But I think right now we need to focus on doing all we can to protect people and their property, and get through this situation.  And we'll have a chance to do a thoughtful and systematic review, and determine how these kinds of things can be avoided in the future.”

The corps still predicts a crest at Jefferson City somewhere between 27 and 35 feet, depending on local rainfall and the number of levee failures that occur upriver.  

And unlike 1993, the peak level could be sustained for a period of weeks.