Missouri residents pack up and leave as once-rare floods become the new normal

Deadly floods like the ones currently plaguing towns across the midwest, once labeled rare or freak weather events, are recurring with worrying regularity

About 100 miles downstream of Hannibal, the boyhood home of Mark Twain, the small Missouri town of West Alton has spent the past week without almost its entire population as it has been completely swamped by water.

William Richter is the mayor of a town he cannot reach. West Alton's 525 people were evacuated due to deadly floods that caused the nearby Mississippi river to surge to 38ft high - a good 17ft above the flood level. Both roads into the town are still cut off.