By Tim Loh

(Bloomberg) — After a New Year’s wrecked by flooding and destruction, there’s excellent news for the folks of St. Louis: The worst seems to be over.

Most of Missouri’s main roads and highways are open once more and so is the 6-mile stretch of Mississippi River that the U.S. Coast Guard closed final week. The Meramec River, which climbed 35 toes (11 meters) over three days and created a lot of the area’s havoc, is receding.

“It’s come down almost as fast as it went up,” Mike O’Connell, a spokesman for the Missouri Department of Public Safety, stated in an e-mail.

Heavy December rains throughout the Midwest created the flooding, forcing the closing of pipelines, terminals and grain elevators and killing no less than 30 folks, in line with state emergency officers in Missouri, Illinois and Oklahoma.

The Mississippi rose to its third-highest stage ever in St. Louis on Jan. 1 and notched document heights the next day within the river cities of Cape Girardeau and Thebes, Missouri, Jeff Masters, co-founder of Weather Underground in Ann Arbor, Michigan, stated on his weblog.

Moving South

Now, the swollen waters are snaking south, the place officers will attempt to handle a lot of the overflow with levees earlier than it arrives in Baton Rouge and New Orleans about Jan. 19, stated Jeff Graschel, a hydrologist on the Lower Mississippi River Forecast Center, an arm of the National Weather Service, in Slidell, Louisiana.

On Monday, areas south of St. Louis had been pivoting out of emergency mode. The National Guard left St. Genevieve County on Saturday and is scheduled to depart close by Perry County later as we speak, O’Connell stated. The Missouri Transportation Department is getting ready to open the Chester Bridge into Illinois as quickly as Monday night after an inspection and analysis, he stated.

The closure of the Illinois River was expanded to 110 miles from 80 miles, encompassing the part from Hardin, Illinois, to Beardstown, Illinois, the Coast Guard stated in a web based assertion.

Cairo Crest

The Mississippi River was cresting close to Cairo, Illinois, on Monday, reaching 56 toes, a document for this time of yr however beneath the all-time mark of 61.7 toes set in 2011, Graschel stated. That was beneath estimates for that a part of the river from final week, which might be excellent news for cities downstream, he stated.

“As we go south from Cairo, the levee system can contain lots of the flow,” he stated. “Any businesses and farming inside the levee systems will be impacted.”

Kinder Morgan Inc. stored shut its Cahokia terminal in Sauget, Illinois, and its Cora terminal in Rockwood, Illinois, firm spokesman Richard Wheatley stated by e-mail. Cahokia handles chemical compounds, coal, cement and metals whereas Cora handles coal and petcoke, in line with the corporate’s web site.

Exxon Mobil Corp.’s Memphis merchandise terminal additionally stays closed, spokesman Todd Spitler stated in e-mail. “We will restart the facility as soon as it is safe to do so,” he stated.

Steve Lee, a spokesman for refiner Valero Energy Corp., didn’t reply to e-mail looking for touch upon the standing of its Memphis refinery alongside the Mississippi River. Valero additionally has a dock on the river.

Enbridge Inc.’s Ozark pipeline stays shut, because it has been since Dec. 30. The pipeline crosses the Mississippi River. Water ranges on the crossing had been receding however nonetheless very excessive, spokesman Michael Barnes stated in a telephone interview. He estimates will probably be a number of days earlier than inspection groups are capable of examine if it’s secure to restart the pipeline.

–With help from Barbara Powell and Megan Durisin.

©2016 Bloomberg News