A Bit of History of the Niangua River water levels
We were surprised to find out that last summer's (2015) flood waters which delayed the start of our building were the fourth highest river levels in the recorded history of the Niangua. The levels are based on a guage at the Windyville, Missouri, bridge, which is the closest recording site upstream from Riversong. Below is a chart of the record river levels and flows.
On December 26, 2015, at 4:00 pm the river level was recorded at 3.06 feet with a flow of 450 CFS. By 7:30 am on December 27, 2015, the river level was at 22.44 feet with a flow of 34,900 CFS. By 11:00 am on that same day the river had breached the guage and was estimated to be at 24.5 feet and the river was estimated to be flowing at a record 47,000 CFS. Final estimates set the height at about 28 feet with a flow of 65,000 cubic feet per second.
Some annecdotes:
After the flood of 1993, Bob Burns of NRO erected the building on their property that is now called Hollyhock which serves meals to their customers. It was formerly called the Gravy Bowl. Bob made sure to build well above the high river mark of 1993 but in 2015, Hollyhock had 6 inches of water in it. The water levels keep rising.
The store at NRO has taken on water in the past but the flood of 2015 had most of it underwater when Bob Burns went to bed on 12/27/15. He said, "Just a bit of the roof of the store was showing at bedtime. It probably went over the roof during the night." When we visited on 12/29, the waters had receded a great deal but the lower portion of the store was still underwater. By this time we had been able to walk under our cabin and although it was very muddy, there was no standing water.
The NRO store on December 27, 2015
Riversong Cabin on December 29, 2015
Look for the fine orange line that marks the high water mark. Below is the evidence of the high water.
To see a few more pictures go to the blog post dated 12/30/15.
