Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, October 3, 1993 TAG: 9310030086
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-7 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: QUINCY, ILL. LENGTH: Short
James R. Scott of Fowler was jailed Saturday on a Missouri warrant issued the day before, said Sheriff Dan Campbell of Missouri's Marion County. He was held in lieu of $1 million bond.
Quincy police were questioning Scott about a local burglary Friday when he implicated himself in the July 16 levee break at West Quincy, Mo., and was charged with knowingly causing a catastrophe, Campbell said.
Scott, whom authorities intend to extradite to Missouri, could be sentenced to 10 years to life in prison if convicted.
Scott was among scores of workers who piled sandbags on the 50-year-old levee in a furious eight-day effort to keep the river back. After the break, he was interviewed on television.
Adams County Sheriff Robert Nall said that in the television interview Scott talked about seeing water running through the levee, trying to get help to stop it, being rebuffed, and going back to find the water running too fast to be stopped.
The break sent the flooded Mississippi surging through the small community of West Quincy, forcing evacuations, ruining crops and closing the Bayview Bridge, which serves thousands of commuters between Illinois and Missouri.
At the time it was the only open bridge along 212 miles of the Mississippi River, from St. Louis to Burlington, Iowa.
Foul play was suspected shortly after the break, which occurred at a point that had seemed stable.
by CNB