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Politicians meet in Columbia, talk flooding

Kansas City District
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State and federal leaders are gathering in Columbia tomorrow to talk about ways to prevent last year’s devastating floods in northwest and southeastern Missouri.

Heavy snow and rainfall led to record releases from South Dakota dams along the Missouri River – and as a result 200-thousand acres of farmland in northwest Missouri sat flooded for months.  Around 130-thousand acres were flooded in the southeast part of the state when the Army Corps of Engineers blew up a levee along the Mississippi River in order to protect the town of Cairo, Illinois. 

Governor Jay Nixon, Missouri Senators Roy Blunt and Claire McCaskill, and U-S Representatives Vicky Hartzler and Blaine Luetkemeyer are slated to discuss recovery efforts at a meeting of the Missouri Levee and Drainage District Association.  Saturday’s schedule also includes an update on levee repairs by Army Corps officials.  In Jefferson City I’m Marshall Griffin.

Missouri Public Radio State House Reporter Marshall Griffin is a proud alumnus of the University of Mississippi (a.k.a., Ole Miss), and has been in radio for over 20 years, starting out as a deejay. His big break in news came when the first President Bush ordered the invasion of Panama in 1989. Marshall was working the graveyard shift at a rock station, and began ripping news bulletins off the old AP teletype and reading updates between songs. From there on, his radio career turned toward news reporting and anchoring. In 1999, he became the capital bureau chief for Florida's Radio Networks, and in 2003 he became News Director at WFSU-FM/Florida Public Radio. During his time in Tallahassee he covered seven legislative sessions, Governor Jeb Bush's administration, four hurricanes, the Terri Schiavo saga, and the 2000 presidential recount. Before coming to Missouri, he enjoyed a brief stint in the Blue Ridge Mountains, reporting and anchoring for WWNC-AM in Asheville, North Carolina. Marshall lives in Jefferson City with his wife, Julie, their dogs, Max and Mason, and their cat, Honey.
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