Missouri flooding: ‘This is the worst I've seen'

As he turned onto Lime Kiln Road Wednesday afternoon, Mark Embrey stopped soon after as his car met the rising flood waters. To his right, his family's farmhouse stood dry as flood waters in nearly all directions surrounded it.

To his left, all he could see was a sea of water, his farmland turned into a roaring river of flood water.

The area around Highway 60 going east out of Neosho toward Granby and Lime Kiln Road looked like a lake scene early Wednesday afternoon, as nearly five inches of rain fell on the Neosho region in the previous 36 hours.

The storm caused major flooding throughout the Southwest Missouri region, and a major headache for Embrey, who has 40 head of cattle on his property.

As Embrey came out of his car, he walked up to the corner of his property that is on a slight incline. Standing in that corner were most of his cattle, except for a few that sought dry land near the elevated train tracks. Embrey said despite the flooding, he was fortunate that he did not lose any cattle. Two months ago, Embrey fought off another flood, though not nearly as severe, and had to replace fencing along Lime Kiln Road.

He expects to have to do the same this time, as he anticipates having more damages to fencing and property in the wake of the recent storm.

"I have lived almost my whole life out here, 45 years, and I have seen nothing like this," said Embrey, shaking his head in disbelief.

"We were watching the weather, and we knew we had about 10 hours to get (the cattle) up to dry land if we could. Now, we just have to wait for the water to come down. We have to keep the feed out there, and now we have a place to drop some hay. They will be well and good."

Embrey said when the water goes down he will assess the damage, and start putting his fences back up.

"I would not be surprised if the road (Lime Kiln) is washed away again," he said. "I have seen nothing like this. This is the worst I?have seen. This is really devastating. We will get the fences back up, get the cows out there, and we will be ready to go. Give me two weeks, and it will be like this never happened."

Neosho Daily News