Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, August 3, 1993 TAG: 9308030178
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: ST. LOUIS LENGTH: Medium
The largest metropolitan area threatened in six weeks of Midwestern flooding escaped the predicted collision of record crests of the Mississippi and Missouri rivers Monday, but residents have seen all too intimately what heartbreak the waters can bring.
The rivers remain unnaturally high, levees are saturated, area farms and towns are submerged - and people continue sandbagging.
"We've lived with this so long," said a tearful Margaret Lindemann, whose south St. Louis home, tucked behind a battered levee, appeared spared. "What is relief? It's been horrible."
The waters have battered St. Louis since Friday, flooding hundreds of homes in suburban Chesterfield and St. Charles, forcing thousands of people to evacuate and inundating nearby farmland.
But despite continued levee breaks and lingering fears, it appears the Flood of '93 could be reaching its conclusion after causing at least $10 billion in damage and claiming 46 lives, the latest the body of a woman discovered in North Dakota.
The weather pattern that brought relentless rains has shifted to the usual, drier summer pattern. And in the states downstream from Missouri and Illinois, the Mississippi flows wider, without the constraining levees.
The river levels dropped in the metropolitan area because the Mississippi continued to bulldoze through saturated levees in western Illinois, just to the east of the city, dumping billions of gallons of water.
Monday, it was the farming community of Valmeyer that paid the price; it was almost completely submerged. Authorities said the water gushing through a levee break there would eventually flow unimpeded across the 20 miles of low-lying farmland to the historic town of Prairie du Rocher.
The day before, Alton, Ill., bore the brunt; its downtown was swamped and its water treatment plant damaged when the river crept into the sewer system. More than 70,000 people remained without drinking water.
"The water just came through the ground, bubbling up through the street, and the streets were buckling right before your very eyes," said Paul Ventimiglia, who manages his grandfather's now-flooded Tony's Restaurant.
Downriver in Ste. Genevieve, Mo., some residents were reluctant to evacuate, even as the Mississippi pressed toward a new crest projected at 49 feet for Tuesday.
St. Louis took a battering this weekend, but the Mississippi didn't reach the staggering level Monday that everyone had predicted.
The crest, as it turned out, occurred Sunday without anyone knowing, when the river reached a record 49.4 feet; thus, it missed the crest of the Missouri, which rolled in right on schedule Monday.
The Mississippi dropped overnight to 48.6 feet - a level higher than many had once considered possible, but still well below the forecast of 49.7 feet.
No new areas in the metropolitan area took on water Monday, though authorities evacuated about 8,000 people overnight in south St. Louis along the River Des Peres because of fears that 51 propane tanks bobbing dangerously in the swollen waters would explode.
As divers unhooked leaky tanks from their pipes, Fire Chief Neil J. Svetanics called the situation precarious.
Even if all remains quiet, it will take some time before St. Louis residents are able to put this flood in some perspective. The damage has been too great, the unknowns too many. Said Candy Green, spokeswoman for the city's Emergency Management Agency. "There's still too much to worry about."
by CNB