It was business as usual this morning for people working in the Missouri River at Jefferson City, but it’s also a week for places like the MFA Exchange to pay close attention to the rising river.
It's been eighteen years since the great flood of 1993 – 16 since the last time water covered the valley floor.
We've moved out three times since,” said Ben Steinman, of the MFA exchange. “And it hasn't gotten over that thirty feet yet."
Steinman and the crew at the MFA Exchange know there is no reason to panic.
It takes 12 hours to clean out MFA Exchange. If and when the order comes, the evacuation is immediate and orderly.
“MFA Incorporated has van trailers that we can get ahold of,” Steinman said. “Our anhydrous tanks we've already moved to the Cedar Creek location. Fertilizer buggies -- we've got a couple of people at Holts Summit that we just park it at their place."
The one thing that won’t wait for the water is the grain. The Exchange has already emptied its soybean bins and will have all the corn moved out in another day. That’s because Mother Nature could decide to make the river rise much faster than it is now.
“If we had a two-inch rain tomorrow, we’d be gone,” Steinman said.
Steinman said moving the elevator out of the flood plain is cost prohibitive and MFA will continue to take its chances with Mother Nature.
“We’ve just got to pay attention to what the Corps puts out, plus what Mother Nature puts on us, and just kind of go from there,” he said.
Jefferson City Memorial Airport Manager Ron Craft said he also needs about twelve hours to evacuate the airport property.
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