valley park. jennifer gray is there. you heard elena. two feet higher than the 93 flood. what are we expecting where you are? we should break the record by about three feet here we are expected to crest between 6:00 a.m. tonight and tomorrow morning. we are already at 40 and expected to go to 43 by tonight. it is a little misleading because it is not raining at all and you think of floods, you think of rain. but the waters are still rising all around here. and will continue to do so for the next couple of days. look behind me. these are major thorough fairs for the entire country. interstate 44 is shut down and you can see the water just underneath it. that is highway 141 underneath that bridge. and the water is expected to reach another three feet.
we put the barricades up on purpose, to keep people out. we re working crocely with the police, the highway patrol to keep people out of those areas. the department of transportation relies on partners and other agencies to make sure the closures go off without a hitch and get people where they need to go. what are your biggest challenges right now? well, right now, since i-44 closed last night at 2:00, is trying to route those people around and trying to get them to roads the truckers, especially, to roads they can make it. you can t send my tractor-trailers on small roads. these detours are miles and miles away. that merrimack river really winds around. i was looking at it on a map. it winds around. when you see how many areas it s breached and how much water is there, it will be a challenge for you. greg horn, thank few for your time. i know it s a busy day. we ll keep making sure people are aware of closures.
it s really been difficult. it has been difficult. it s a real challenge, rerouting all of those people, especially when you consider that i-44 is a major trucking route. we know there s some 100,000 vehicles that go through there per day. a ten-mile stretch of that is closed. how are you managing to route people to safety? that s the tricky part. it s closed in two places. one in midmissouri and last night at 2:00 it closed in st. louis. a lot of our detour routes are also closed. we re trying to find routes that can handle the trucks. some of these are 100, 150-mile detours. we are urging people to get to i-70. anybody coming through missouri, take them highway 70. i-70 is open. that s a good message we hope will get spread to people trying to get in and around that area. i m curious what your message is to motorists right now.
interstate 44 is closed in the middle of the state kind of near rala, missouri, and we are expecting a spot on interstate 44 to close in st. louis before morning. and those two closures on interstate 44 are making it not only very di to get around missouri but also very difficult for travel rs trying to get through travellers trying to get through our state and travel in the midwest, the ability to get from, say, illinois to oklahoma. so we re having a tough time dealing with truck traffic and through travellers trying to get through the state of missouri. and in some areas, these floods could be unprecedented. let s turn to our meteorologist to learn more about this and to get an idea of just how extensive this flooding is. it is incredible. this is something that you typically don t see take place to this extent when it comes to the time of year it is. stipulatecally, the first week of winter, nobody is talking
water has been rising all morning long. we are have been here since 5:00 this morning local time, and look at that. look at the bridge and the overpass, and that is interstate 44 and the wa water is up to the water is up to the overpass. and perpendicular is high wway . you can see the highway $141 photo signs here, ap i took this before the sun came up, and there were arrows, another sign underneath the 141 sign that was completely above the water, and now, completely under, so it is going to give you an idea of how fast the water has risen throughout the day today. the traffic lights almost submerged as well. we have had about 150 people out here with cell phone, and everybody is wanting a closer look, but the authorities say it is a dangerous situation, and the water is rising and expecting to rise most likely another two feet before midnight tonight. the forecast is actually