South Side Flooding Responsibility (7-23-20)

South Side Flooding Responsibility (7-23-20)

Every direction after flooding caused damage to homes near contrary creek in st.

Joseph.

Residents are asking -- is it buchanan county's, the city's, or missouri's fault for all the extensive flood damage?

Kq2's madeline mcclain tracked down an answer -- she says, residents might not like: <<you can see why the residents are angry when you look at the creek behind me.

It's a mess and so are their homes.

The answer i have is not one the people who live here are going to like...the individual landowners living along the creek are responsible for cleaning it up.

County officials say there are exceptions -- levees districts, state or county owned bridges -- fall squarely on government officials to take care of.

In missouri -- landowners whose property backs up to streams like contrary creek...usually own that property all the way up to the center line of the channel buch.

Co.

Emergency management: not the county, not the city nor the state has access to the banks of the river.

The owners of the property are the people that are responsible for the trees and brush that fall into it.") contrary creek runs from south to north -- winding from rushville up here -- and then to the missouri river.

County officials say that means 100s of landowners -- as well as cities, counties, the state and the army corp of engineers have a hand in the stream managment.

County officials say it was just an unfortunate mixture of events that led to the flooding in the area including heavy rain, and debris jammed in the creek.

Reporting from contrary creek-- madeline mcclain, kq2 news.>>