Flood Zones and Levee Risk in Chariton County, Missouri

1993 and 2019: a levee system with a documented history of failing

The Missouri River Levee System (MRLS) L-246 runs along the left (north) bank of the Missouri River in southwestern Chariton County, protecting the area around and behind the city of Brunswick, which itself sits near the confluence of the Grand and Chariton Rivers with the Missouri. This is not a levee with a clean track record: Brunswick experienced significant flooding in 1993 during that year's historic Midwest floods, and then again, more severely for the levee itself, during the March 2019 Missouri River flood -- one of the most damaging flood events on the Missouri River in decades. During the 2019 event, the L-246 levee system was breached at five separate locations, part of a broader wave of levee failures that affected more than 50 levee systems along the Missouri River between the Kansas/Nebraska area and points downstream.

Two flood events roughly a generation apart at the same location is the pattern that has pushed this levee segment specifically (rather than Missouri River levees generally) into an active federal study process -- it's read locally and by state officials as a recurring problem tied to something specific about this stretch of river and levee, not a one-time freak event.

The Brunswick Study: what's being evaluated, and why it's not resolved yet

In response to the recurring flooding, the Missouri Department of Natural Resources and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers are jointly running what's locally referred to as the Brunswick Study, part of the broader Lower Missouri River Flood Resiliency Studies initiative. The stated purpose is to identify the causes and impacts of recurring flooding along the L-246 levee system and around Brunswick, with a study area covering the left bank of the Missouri River bordered by the Grand and Chariton Rivers. Public outreach meetings have been held in Brunswick as part of the study process (documented through at least a "third public outreach meeting" reference), indicating this has been a multi-year, multi-meeting effort rather than a single study release.

The range of solutions under consideration is genuinely wide, and that width matters for a land buyer: on one end is a structural solution -- a rebuilt or strengthened levee providing a higher level of protection than the current L-246 system. On the other end are non-structural measures: flood-proofing existing buildings, elevating structures above expected flood levels, or relocating structures and potentially residents out of the highest-risk areas entirely. A combined approach using both structural and non-structural elements is also on the table. As of the most recent confirmed public information, no final recommendation had been announced -- which means anyone evaluating land in this specific area is buying into an unresolved policy question, not a settled one. A future outcome that favors buyouts and relocation over levee reinforcement would have very different implications for land value and buildability than an outcome that funds a stronger levee.

What to check before buying land behind or near the L-246 levee

1. Ask the Chariton County floodplain administrator and Missouri DNR's Lower Missouri River Flood Resiliency Studies program directly for the current status of the Brunswick Study -- whether it has reached a preferred alternative, and what the public-comment or funding timeline looks like from here.
2. Pull the current effective and any preliminary FEMA Flood Insurance Rate Map for the specific parcel through FEMA's Map Service Center rather than relying on an older flood-zone determination, since a levee segment with a breach history can affect how FEMA treats accreditation and mapping for the area it's meant to protect.
3. Ask specifically whether the parcel sits behind the L-246 levee segment itself, versus elsewhere along the Missouri River in the county -- flood exposure and any pending study outcome are tied to this specific levee system, not to Chariton County's river frontage generally.
4. If flood insurance is a factor in your financing or ownership plan, get a specific quote for the parcel rather than assuming standard rural agricultural-land rates, since a documented breach history at this levee segment can affect actuarial treatment.
5. For farmland specifically, ask a local farm-real-estate agent or the county Soil & Water Conservation District about the practical frequency of field flooding versus catastrophic levee breach -- these are different risk profiles, and river-bottom ground can flood periodically from high water even when the levee itself holds.