After months of destruction, Mississippi slips beneath flood level at Alton, Grafton

The Mississippi River fell below flood stage for the first time in months in two of the worst-affected cities in the metro-east this week.

Friday marked the first day the Mississippi River has measured below flood stage since early March at Alton and Grafton, according to the National Weather Service’s Advanced Hydrologic Prediction Services.

The two cities were heavily damaged during flooding, submerging homes and closing businesses in the areas closest to the Mississippi River.

Officials in Alton said the springtime flooding will cost the city roughly $3.65 million in past and future costs spent fighting flooding and cleaning up the damage left behind. That number is expected to rise, since many roads are underwater even now.

It is hoped by Alton and many other cities in Illinois that public assistance will be granted by President Donald Trump to help cities that battled flooding this spring recover financially.

The cost of flooding damage in Grafton wasn’t immediately available, but the mental cost to the city’s citizens is becoming more and more prevalent, according to Mayor Rick Eberlin.

“Before we considered it a nuisance. Now we’re going to lose businesses, and we’re going to lose homeowners,” Eberlin said in late June. “If it were a quick up and down like we’re used to, that would have been a different story, but this is going to adversely affect the basic structure of this town.”

The Mississippi River surpassed several records this year for both river level and the length of sustained flooding. At St. Louis, the river was flooded for 127 days, shattering the Great Flood of 1993’s record of 104 days.

The high water mark for the Mississippi River at St. Louis, reached on Saturday, June 8, was 46.02 feet, the second-highest recorded crest.

That sustained flooding caused more than $33 million in damage to the metro-east, according to St. Clair, Madison and Monroe county emergency management agencies.

Grafton is one of many river communities that could benefit from a bill introduced by U.S. Rep Rodney Davis and other members of congress dubbed the Resilience Revolving Loan Fund Act of 2019.

The bill could direct $100 million in funds toward a Federal Emergency Management Agency program that would give revolving loans to states for projects that help stave off emergency disasters.

During a call with Davis and other cities affected by flooding, Eberlin said while the river serves as the city’s main attraction and one of the main channels that feed its economy, bad flooding seasons like this year can cripple the city for months.

He called the possibility of a loan program a “game-changer” for Grafton.

“We’re simply asking for a helping hand, and I believe this bill and this loan fund will do that for all of our communities,” Eberlin said. “We’re not asking for a handout.”

River levels at both Alton and Grafton are still in an “action stage,” where the river is at such a level where some type of mitigation is needed, according to the National Weather Service’s list of flood terminology.

Both cities are expected to exit the action stage late next week.

This story was originally published July 27, 2019 at 3:21 PM.