93.9 The Eagle – The News and Talk of Columbia, MO
Missouri’s governor is heading to the storm-battered St. Louis region this (Monday) afternoon to visit with leaders from towns impacted by historic and deadly flash flooding.
Governor Mike Parson will also visit the University City fire station at 3 pm. The governor says he’ll meet with federal, state and local emergency management partners, and says Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) personnel are expected to be on the ground today.
Parson says FEMA will be participating in joint preliminary damage assessments (PDAs) in St. Louis city, St. Louis County, St. Charles and Montgomery counties in response to record flash flooding. The governor is reminding impacted residents to document all damage and to retain all receipts.
A veteran mid-Missouri state lawmaker who chairs a key House committee says the historic flooding in eastern Missouri should be on the table to be added to the special session this fall in Jefferson City. State Rep. Travis Fitzwater (R-Holts Summit), who chairs the House Fiscal Review Committee, joined us on 939 the Eagle’s “Gary Nolan show.”
“To get 12 inches of rain in some areas in St. Charles, that’s just devastating not only to farmers but to infrastructure. And so I’m sure there will be discussions on that,” Fitzwater says.
The governor is confident that FEMA’s participation in joint damage assessments will confirm the need for a federal disaster declaration from President Joe Biden.
Meantime, Chairman Fitzwater is backing the GOP governor’s call for the largest tax cut in state history.
“I think a massive tax cut is in the cards for Missourians. We need to give them relief. Missourians do a better job with their money than the government does. And we are hitting record revenues in general revenue in the state of Missouri, which means we’re overtaxing our citizens,” says Fitzwater.
Under the governor’s plan, the first $16,000 in earned income for Missouri single filers and the first $32,000 for joint filers would be tax-free. Governor Parson says Missourians are facing record inflation, rising food costs and high gasoline prices.
The special session is expected to take place during September’s veto session in Jefferson City.
Every parking lot, every building, every street takes away from ground absorption. If the rain can’t go into the ground you to build a ditch to handle it. What engineers fail at is predicting water flow from multiple ditches and runoffs. Solution….rip up as much asphalt and concrete as you can and reapply natural soft surfaces. Driveways don’t need to be paved, just 2 driving strips. Parking lots can be water penetrable surfaces with single shopping cart lanes.
And all the hard surfaces add to the ‘climate change’ or haven’t you learned that the sun heats black surfaces?
Very best thing would be to get rid of the channeling of the rivers and let them do what they do naturally, swell during wet season. I feel no empathy for anyone building subdivisions on what was river bottom ground. Just plain dumb.