Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, August 13, 1993 TAG: 9308130149
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: From The New York Times and The Associated Press
DATELINE: ST. LOUIS LENGTH: Medium
He also paid tribute to the heroism of ordinary Americans in responding to the crisis, such as a woman from North Dakota who dived into a flooded basement to rescue a trapped victim.
The president called their courage representative of a spirit that helped to avert wider disaster. Although the worst of the flooding was over, he said the region would continue to need help as it struggles to recover.
The upper Mississippi River valley was hit with a new round of heavy rain Thursday that caused flash flooding, closed roads and evacuations.
Storms dumped up to 10 inches of rain in some sections of Minnesota and deluged parts of Missouri, Nebraska, Iowa and Illinois.
"If anybody's got a direct line to the Lord, tell him we surrender," said Pete Staude, general manager of the newly reopened Capitol Plaza Hotel in Jefferson City, Mo. As much as 5.5 inches of rain left 3 to 4 feet of water in the hotel's parking lot. The hotel had reopened Monday after being closed for 11 days because floodwaters blocked its doors. Guests were awakened around 4:30 a.m. to push their cars out of the water, Staude said.
The National Weather Service reported rainfall up to 8 inches from about 10 p.m. Wednesday to 3 a.m. Thursday in parts of Missouri hit hard by flooding over the past month.
In Iowa, thunderstorms dumped 2 to 4 inches of rain across the southern and central parts of the state Wednesday night, flooding streets in Des Moines.
In Illinois, 6 1/2 inches of rain fell in 24 hours at Champaign, in the east-central part of the state. In Nebraska, slow-moving storms in the east dropped up to 4 inches of rain on parts of Omaha on Wednesday.
Floods surged across rural roads and thousands of acres of farmland in northwest Minnesota as the runoff from as much as 10 inches of rain drained toward the Red River.
Clinton urged Americans to "allow our humanity to help reclaim the lives that are shattered."
The federal aid package will grant reimbursements for some crops lost under high water and provide for the rebuilding of public works and housing ruined by the floods. The size of the aid more than doubled, from $2.5 billion to $6.2 billion, as the bill made its way through Congress, but even that will fall far short of covering the total damages, now estimated at more than $12 billion.
by CNB