Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, July 25, 1993 TAG: 9307250137
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: ST. LOUIS LENGTH: Medium
"The water is going to come back up," said Missouri Water Patrol spokesman Hans Huenink. "There's a lot of areas where they're re-sandbagging. Areas that held up last time are in jeopardy this time."
He said the levees "get soaked, they get soft, and they're not as strong when they get soft."
In southern St. Louis, 1,500 to 2,000 volunteer sandbaggers worked through the night along the bulging River Des Peres, ordinarily a narrow drainage channel for St. Louis and its surrounding county.
Nine-year-old Scott Grzenczyk of Olivette said he and his mother decided to help sandbag because, "We realized the seriousness of the problem."
And Scott was giving directions to volunteers twice his age. "Scott knows what he's doing, so we listen," said Marty Richman, an Indiana University student.
Officials wanted to add one more foot of sandbags along about 1 1/2 miles of River Des Peres levee, building it up so it can meet a crest of 48 feet. Previous crests on the Mississippi twice sent water backing up the channel and over the levee, flooding a neighborhood.
But that goal for the levee was based on a forecast that the river at St. Louis would rise to 47 feet as early as Wednesday.
Fifty miles downriver from St. Louis, crews raced to add height to the levee at historic Ste. Genevieve, Mo. Two weeks ago it was 45 feet high, and by last Wednesday it was built up to 48 feet in time to meet a flood crest.
"They've been tested," Vern Baumann, president of a local levee district, said of the town's levees. "We'll hit our lightest spots first and we're going up, up. Keep a-moving, keep a-plugging."
That forecast was changed Saturday to 48 feet a week from today, the National Weather Service said, because of continuing heavy rain upstream along the Mississippi and Missouri river watersheds.
Eight inches of rain fell during the night in the southeastern corner of Nebraska, on top of 8 inches the day before, the weather service said. Up to 8 inches also fell overnight in west-central Illinois.
Weeks of flooding in the Midwest have contributed to the deaths of 41 people in seven states.
Elsewhere in the Midwest:
The Mississippi remained above flood stage as far north as Dubuque, Iowa, the weather service said. But a 100-mile section of the river from Dubuque south to Davenport was reopened to shipping and recreational boaters, with speed restrictions to prevent damage from wakes, the Coast Guard said. The river remained closed south of Davenport, stranding thousands of barges.
The Missouri River rose almost 2 1/2 feet in 24 hours at Omaha, Neb., and Nebraska City, the weather service said. In Lincoln, levees along the Salt Creek sprung leaks in two areas. Workers raced in with sandbags to patch them.
"It's a lot faster, meaner river than I've ever seen it," said Jim Mason, 64, a fishing guide and owner of a restaurant at Brownville, Neb., where high water knocked out electricity to the town water plant.
Officials tightened security in Riverside, Mo., because authorities caught someone in a boat trying to break into a store late Friday.
"I've got about 6 feet of water in there," said James Hood of his company, Strutco Fence. "Nobody is going to steal from me. Everything's under water."
by CNB