About 100 people attended the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ public flood-plain management workshop, held Wednesday night (Feb. 28) at the De Soto Community Center.
Hal Graef, project manager for the Corps of Engineers, gave a 20-minute overview of the process for developing the Upper Joachim Creek Floodplain Management Plan, which will recommend flood mitigation solutions for the city of De Soto and Jefferson County to consider. He then invited the attendees to provide information about how Joachim Creek flooding has affected them, marking locations on large flood maps.
The data collection, along with upcoming measurements of flood levels in affected areas, will provide the basis for the corps’ flood hazard assessment, expected in June. The corps, working with multiple agencies at the state and federal level, plans to develop flood mitigation strategies this fall and present a draft report at another public meeting targeted for January 2019. The final report would follow in March of next year.
“This is a great first step,” Corps of Engineers planner Matt Jones said during the workshop. “Obviously a lot more work needs to be done. We had the right people in the room tonight.
“This (process) will be a blueprint the city can use; it will help guide the city on their next steps. Anything we can do to mitigate flood damage here – that’s a good thing.”
Several De Soto city officials and Jefferson County emergency management director Warren Robinson attended the event, as did representatives from the Citizens Committee for Flood Relief, Flood Forum USA, the Missouri Department of Natural Resources and the U.S. Geological Survey. State and federal emergency management representatives also attended, as did staffers from the offices of U.S. senators Claire McCaskill and Roy Blunt and U.S. Rep. Jason Smith.