Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, July 11, 1993 TAG: 9307110130
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: From The Associated Press and The Washington Post
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Still more heavy rain fell across parts of the upper Mississippi Valley, with 8 inches recorded Friday night and Saturday morning in Kansas City, Mo.
The sun was shining in many affected areas Saturday, but more drenching rain was predicted by nightfall as a stubborn Bermuda high-pressure area remained firmly planted over the Atlantic Ocean, blocking an increasingly unwelcome storm system from leaving the upper Midwest. Eight inches of rain was recorded at Kansas City on Friday night and Saturday morning, adding to the flow in the Missouri River.
A record Mississippi River flood crest moved past the Iowa cities of Burlington and Keokuk Saturday and headed downstream toward Hannibal, Mo., and Quincy, Ill., but the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers said that new rains in Iowa will prevent the river from falling appreciably even after the crest is past.
Flooding along the Mississippi and its tributaries had forced more than 20,000 people from their homes by Saturday, and had caused 16 deaths since late last month. Officials estimate crop and property damage at more than $2 billion in South Dakota, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Nebraska, Iowa, Illinois and Missouri.
The river had flooded 276,000 acres along a 200-mile stretch of Missouri from Hannibal south to Cape Girardeau, or 431 square miles, said Gary Dyhouse, a spokesman for the Army Corps of Engineers in St. Louis.
From Hannibal south to St. Louis, most of the levees along the Missouri side of the river had been breached or overtopped, he said Saturday.
"Everything north of us is pretty well gone," said Dyhouse.
Levees in other states also collapsed, including a cement one Friday in Meyer, Ill., across the river from Canton, Mo. The break sent the Mississippi cascading over as much as 30,000 acres of prime west-central Illinois farmland.
From the air, farmers could be seen tearing up their corn crops to build dikes around their homes and farm buildings.
Contaminated water and disease emerged as a worry. Free typhoid shots were offered in some locations, and bottled water distributors were donating some supplies. The Anheuser-Busch Co. shipped 4,500 cans of water from St. Louis to hard-hit Crawford County in western Iowa.
In St. Louis, some raw sewage was pumped into the river from the city's antiquated sewer system to prevent water pressure from backing sewage into homes.
"We don't like it, but the alternative isn't so attractive either," said Terry Briggs, communications director for the Metropolitan Sewer District.
Ahead of the advancing Mississippi crest, it was difficult to believe that the worst was yet to come.
At hard-hit Davenport, Iowa, one of the few river cities with no levees or flood walls, the Mississippi was at 22.4 feet, Saturday, down 0.2 of a foot from its record crest Thursday and Friday but still 7.4 feet above flood stage.
The Mississippi and Missouri rivers created a double threat for St. Charles County, Mo., just north of St. Louis. Part of the county forms a peninsula separating the two rivers as they approach their confluence.
Missouri's state Emergency Management Agency said about 14,000 people around the state had been evacuated because of flooding on the Mississippi and Missouri.
At least 6,000 people have been forced from their homes along the Mississippi and other streams in Illinois, and 2,700 National Guardsmen have been mobilized, state officials said. Iowa had at least 4,000 families out of their homes.
In historic Ste. Genevieve, 60 miles south of St. Louis, National Guard troops and residents were down to their last sandbags as they fought to protect the 18th- and 19th-century French colonial-style buildings that earned the city a spot on the National Register of Historic Places. Another shipment of 150,000 sandbags was expected from Memphis.
by CNB