EDWARDSVILLE, Ill. — Early last week Chapin farmer John Werries said a sizeable portion of his 3,800 acres of corn and soybeans near the Mississippi River bottoms turned into a large swimming pool, with “standing water everywhere.”

 

Werries was able to plant his corn and most of his beans well before the heaviest of rains began to fall in the region April 26.

 

His farm received about 9 inches of rain for a few days. Then, beginning May 3. another 2.5 inches of rain was delivered.

 

“We certainly didn’t need that second wave, that’s for sure. I know I’ll have some replanting to do, but I hope most of this holds on. It’s starting to drain well now,” Werries said Sunday. “I don’t know how it’s going to turn out in the end. We’ll be watching regularly for all kinds of disease pressures.”

 

He has plenty of company in Missouri and the southern half of Illinois, where some parts of each state received nearly 15 inches of rain during the two-storm system, said Illinois State Climatologist Jim Angel. Thanks to the late-month deluge, April 2017 now ranks as the second-wettest on record, Angel said, with an average of 7.01 inches of rain in the state – nearly twice the normal level.

 

Dozens of roads near the bottoms were closed in both Missouri and Illinois, with U.S. Highway 50 between O’Fallon and Lebanon scheduled to reopen sometime May 8, according to the Illinois Department of Transportation.

 

Water levels along the Mississippi River were so high that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers halted shipping through a fivemile stretch of the river near St. Louis. It was reopened to traffic on late afternoon Sunday, thanks to a nearly three-day stretch of sunshine and windy weather. The river crested at Chester, Ill., at 44.6 feet and at St. Louis at 41.7 feet on Friday, and on Sunday at Cape Girardeau at 45.9 feet. Each reading was at least 12 feet above flood stage, according to a Corps statement.

 

In Cairo, which was threatened with serious flooding in 2011 when the Mississippi River crested there at 61 feet, the flood threat is significantly less in large part because the Ohio River is not as swollen as it was six years ago, said Alexander County Engineer Jeff Denny.

 

The river at Cairo was expected to crest at 52 feet May 8, 9 feet lower than in 2011. The Mississippi and Ohio rivers converge at Cairo. Insurance claims for replanting are expected to skyrocket in Missouri and Illinois because of the deluge. Through last Friday, Country Financial Crop Claims Manager Brad Clow said a total of 293 replanting claims already were filed with his company, more than five times the claims filed during the same time last year. 

 

“We expect a lot more, as you can imagine,” he noted. Denny said Friday that generally the system of levees along with Mississippi River were holding well, save for the Len Small Levee, which was breached during a massive storm on New Year’s Eve 2016 and remains unrepaired.

 

“With the levee not being in place, we’re introducing water about 6-foot higher than if the levee is in place,” he said. “It can still back in and come in on Horseshoe Lake, but you’re letting it in on the upper end now. We know some of our roads are just getting wiped out. But so far it hasn’t gotten high enough to threaten any of the homes.”