Flood Ravaged Cities battle to contain Mighty Mississippi River
Pastor Dale Morgan
Flood Ravaged Cities battle to contain Mighty Mississippi River*
* Story Highlights
* Three Mississippi River levees broke Thursday in Lincoln County
* Four more levee breaches were expected to aggravate the flooding
overnight
* Residents in nearby cities sandbagged the levees to prevent more
flooding
* National Weather Service significantly lowered crest predictions
in other areas
FOLEY, Missouri (AP) -- For the second time in 15 years, Keith Aubuchon
found himself packing his belongings and evacuating his home to escape a
"100-year" flood of the Mississippi River.
Houses on Pillsbury Road in Lincoln County, Missouri can barely be seen
Thursday.
He returned and remodeled his house after the flood of 1993. This time,
he doesn't know whether it will be worth coming back.
"This is my second flood. I don't think there will be a third," Aubuchon
said as he drove a pickup loaded with a washing machine and other
belongings out of his subdivision.
Floodwaters rapidly filled the roads, yards and gullies behind him just
hours after a levee breached north of Foley. Authorities estimate that
much of the small town will be flooded by the weekend.
Three Mississippi River levees broke Thursday in Lincoln County, sending
a creeping wave of water toward Foley and causing more concern in nearby
Winfield.
The river was overflowing 90 percent of the levees in eastern Lincoln
County, and at least four more breaches were expected to aggravate the
flooding overnight, said Lincoln County Emergency Management spokesman
Andy Binder.
While the situation worsened in Lincoln County, it improved slightly
elsewhere along the river after the National Weather Service
significantly lowered crest predictions. The revisions came after
several levee breaks in Illinois, including one Wednesday near Meyer
that could inundate 17,000 acres of farmland with water that otherwise
would have been flowing south.
That means many towns along the river won't see the record-level flood
crests they expected. The new prediction shows St. Louis cresting at
37.3 feet Friday, well short of the 49.58-foot mark in 1993.
But National Weather Service meteorologist Jim Kramper said river towns
aren't safe yet.
"There will still be a lot of places with major flooding," Kramper said.
"Even at the levels we're expecting now, a lot of places are threatened."
The relief came at a cost for communities where levees failed. The first
levee breached Wednesday in Lincoln County near Winfield, about 50 miles
north of St. Louis, followed Thursday by the series of breaks that
spilled water into sparsely populated areas, Binder said.
The southward flows were expected to put increasing pressure on a series
of inland levees protecting the towns of Winfield and Elsberry.
To help raise the levees a 2 feet, dozens of volunteers filled tens of
thousands of sandbags in Winfield. The bags were piled onto pallets and
shipped to the levees, where roughly 150 National Guard members stacked
them on top of the existing walls.
"It's about the most rewarding thing I've done in a long time," said
David Hays, a computer programmer from Chesterfield, Missouri, who took
time off work to help fill sandbags. "I was filling sandbags until I
couldn't move my arms. Then I held bags until my shoulders hurt. Then I
became a supervisor."
In Iowa, where residents are mopping up after the deluge in Des Moines
and Iowa City, President Bush surveyed the flood's aftermath Thursday
and assured residents and rescuers alike that he is listening to their
concerns. iReport.com: Send photos, videos of the flood damage
"Obviously, to the extent we can help immediately, we will help," said
Bush, still mindful of criticism that the government reacted slowly to
Hurricane Katrina three years ago.
"You'll come back better," the president said. "Sometimes it's hard to
see it." Video See Bush talk to officials and residents about the
destruction »
Bush was in Europe when tornadoes hit and heavy rains sent rivers
surging over their banks, killing at least 24 people, the majority in
Iowa. He made a point to try to show his concern while overseas and
traveled to Iowa just two days after returning.
"I really don't have much of an opinion of his coming," said Lashawn
Baker, 33, whose family was just starting to clean her flooded home in a
southwest Cedar Rapids neighborhood. "It took him a long time to get to
New Orleans, and he didn't help any of those people, so I don't think
he's going to do anything to help Cedar Rapids now that he's here."
At the briefing in Cedar Rapids, Bush, his shirt sleeves rolled up, told
local officials that he came "just to listen to what you've got on your
mind."
Noting that several hundred federal emergency workers were fanning
across Iowa, he added, "That ought to help the people in the smaller
communities know that somebody is there to listen to them."
The sluggish federal response when Katrina devastated the Gulf Coast in
2005 was judged woefully inadequate and brought heavy criticism of Bush
and FEMA. It also brought sensitivity on the part of federal officials
each time disaster has struck since to show that things were working better.
FEMA Administrator David Paulison accompanied Bush to Iowa on Air Force
One and praised the "great coordination" between federal, state and
local leaders.
Paulison said othat ne thing FEMA was doing differently was working
better with other partners -- the Army Corps of Engineers and even
Wal-Mart -- to distribute supplies. The agency also was placing stocks
of sandbags and other supplies in states or towns where flooding hadn't
hit or material had not been requested, just to be ready, he said.