Missouri River floods swallow trails, fields and a ‘way of life’ in Parkville

Jane Harrington of North Kansas City was having what she called a nostalgia day Tuesday at English Landing Park in Parkville. But instead of eating her lunch in the park, she was eating under a farmers’ market structure in the parking lot.

The park, which she said was a “way of life” for her kids when she lived in Parkville, is underwater due to recent flooding.

“I teared up driving by because of the thought of the damage,” Harrington said.

In a season of flooding that shows no end in sight, Parkville is one example of how the high waters continue to affect the lives of those living along the Missouri River.

“Right now, we’re at the wettest year on record through June 26,” said meteorologist Spencer Mell of the National Weather Service in Pleasant Hill. On average, Kansas City sees 18.4 inches of rain at this point in the year, he said, but has seen 31.9 inches this year.

English Landing Park and Platte Landing Park sit next to each other along the Missouri River. The parks’ combined 200-plus acres, which include trails, baseball fields and a dog park, attract roughly 2,000 people a day, sometimes as many as 10,000 people during various festivals, according to public works estimates.

But lately, the flood has brought a new type of parkgoer — the onlooker. On the day Harrington was there, several people drove, walked and biked up to the edge of the caution tape to gaze over at the murky water engulfing English Landing.

Both parks are under several feet of brown, buggy water. The water was at its highest during each of the two big floods this year, at the end of March and beginning of June, said Alysen Abel, director of Parkville Public Works.

The parks are built to handle some flooding, but certainly not the amount that was seen in March and June, she said.

Tom Barnard, superintendent of parks, said the water has begun to recede — from Tuesday to Wednesday, the water decreased by a foot and half. However, this won’t last if there’s more rain, and the public works department thinks it’s very possible the park can flood again.

Flooding isn’t a rarity for the parks. There have been several floods over the past few years, Barnard said, but he’s never experienced more than one in the same year.

The flood brings more problems than just water, Barnard said. The park has never experienced this much silt — sediment that is carried in by the water — from a flood before, he said. The flood water has also killed many trees, both by suffocating their roots and attracting beavers, which gnaw at the bases.

Cleaning up the flood takes time and doesn’t end once the water is cleared, Barnard said. The ground has to dry out, silt needs to be removed and electricity needs to be repaired. English Landing Park was also in the process of getting a bridge addition, which has been stalled by the flooding.

Parkville residents are used to the flooding, Barnard said, and have helped in the past with the cleanup. The help hasn’t been needed yet this year, but Barnard expects that will change.

“It really shows how people care and how important the park is to the community,” he said.

John Yates, an employee of a shop across the street from English Landing Park, only works once a week, but said he’s noticed a difference in customer numbers.

The shop, called Old Town Sweets and Antiques, often attracts bikers, runners and other parkgoers for ice cream or a cold drink of water in the summer, he said. With the park flooded, onlookers often come through the doors, Yates said, but the shop hasn’t seen nearly as many people as in previous years.

Parkville hosts many festivals throughout the spring and summer months and Barnard hopes the recent flooding won’t cancel the ones to come. He said the town is doing what it can to put on the festivals as planned — particularly a four-day carnival in August — but is expecting to have to change locations.

Yates hopes the Fourth of July festivities planned for the parking lot of English Landing Park will still take place because they attract customers to Parkville and their shop.

“We’re doing our best to be strategic about the restoration,” Abel said.

This story was originally published June 26, 2019 at 6:42 PM.