2019 Flood Recovery: Helping with Flood Buckets

Helping with Flood Buckets is the latest in a series of posts about how rural communities were impacted and are striving to recover from the floods of 2019.

Craig, Missouri

Most of the posts about the floods of 2019 on Rural Resurrection have been about the communities impacted by the flooding in Nebraska and Iowa. However, many towns along the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers in Missouri were hit hard by the flooding as well. One of those small towns was Craig in northwestern Missouri.

The struggles of Craig during the 2019 floods are worth discussing, but how other communities helped is notable as well. The bomb cyclone that hit Nebraska in March of 2019 had an impact felt downstream, along the length of the Missouri River. The flooding got worse when abnormal amounts of rain came down upon already saturated lands throughout the Missouri River drainage basin.

Although levies have saved Craig at times in the past, flooding is nothing new to the 248 residents who lived there. The residents of the community were ordered to evacuate on June 21, 2011 due to the massive flooding that took place that year. Evacuation orders were issued again in March 2019 as the flood waters broke through the levy that protected the community.

Below are a couple of videos made during the 2019 floods that help depict the impact on the community:

Helping with Flood Buckets

Flood recovery is tough enough as it is. But it is even tougher when you don’t have anyone in your corner. Thankfully Craig had helpful souls in nearby communities willing to provide a helping hand. As much of the town was inundated for nearly two weeks before the floodwaters receded, their help was desperately needed.

Members of Maryville First United Methodist Church and First United Methodist Church of Rock Port raised about $10,000 to help flood recovery efforts in Craig. More than half of those funds were used to purchase the supplies needed to prepare “flood buckets”.

Each recipient of a flood bucket received a 5-gallon bucket filled with an array of cleaning supplies and other items aimed to help residents clean up after the flood waters receded.

Flood Buckets, Hashoo Foundation USA; [CC BY-SA 2.0 ], from Flickr.com

• Dish soap
• Laundry soap
• Scrub brushes and scour pads
• Work gloves and Kitchen gloves
• Clothes pins and a Clothesline
• Trashbags
• N95 masks
• Air fresheners and Bug spray

Check THIS LINK for a detailed listing of what may be typically provided in a flood bucket.

There Are No Borders in Disaster Recovery

The story of Craig is not just one of resilience in the face of a flood. It’s not only about flood buckets either. The 2019 floods in Craig are a clear example that there are no borders in disaster recovery. Communities need to have good communication with each other to be able lean upon each other in times of need. Start now to have those lines of communication in place for when disaster strikes.