[6432] in APO-L
Fwd: More evacuations as two rivers rise
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Jeffrey N. Woodford)
Thu Jul 8 22:41:47 1993
Date: Thu, 8 Jul 1993 22:40:37 -0400
Reply-To: "Jeffrey N. Woodford" <jw53+@andrew.cmu.edu>
From: "Jeffrey N. Woodford" <jw53+@andrew.cmu.edu>
To: Multiple recipients of list APO-L <APO-L%PURCCVM.BITNET@mitvma.mit.edu>
I know that somebody was asking about flooding on the Missouri River.
Well here's the scoop. Our National Office may not be out of danger
after all...
In case you don't know, St. Charles County is just north of St. Louis,
right in between the Missouri and Mississippi rivers; and Jefferson City
and Columbia are downriver from Kansas City.
In LF&S,
-Jeff W.
Kappa, Carnegie Mellon University
Native of St. Louis, Missouri
---------- Forwarded message begins here ----------
From: clarinews@clarinet.com (UPI)
Newsgroups: clari.local.missouri
Subject: More evacuations as two rivers rise
Date: 8 Jul 93 16:30:03 GMT
WEST ALTON, Mo. (UPI) -- Thousands of residents of St. Charles County,
trapped between the flooded Mississippi and Missouri rivers, were forced
out of their homes Thursday as water levels rose steadily toward new
records.
About 500 residents of West Alton, at the tip of the confluence
formed by the two great rivers, had been ordered to evacuate by 2 p.m.
Wednesday, and county emergency officials said all but a few townspeople
had left. Authorities cannot force residents to leave their homes.
As the deadline passed, authorities punched a hole in the levee that
had been protecting West Alton from the rising Mississippi, allowing
water to rush into the town. Emergency officials said they had used the
controlled break to allow floodwaters to enter the town gradually,
rather than in a destructive rush.
By Thursday morning, the water was beginning to enter homes. With the
Mississippi not expected to crest until next week and new concerns about
flooding on the Missouri, many residents said they feared their homes
would be completely immersed.
Concerns about the integrity of the Maachens levee along the
Mississippi in northern St. Charles County prompted emergency officials
in the county and the city of St. Charles to issue a joint flood warning
and evacuation order about 10 p.m. Wednesday. About 3,000 people live in
the affected area, which includes all bottomlands and the Missouri river
flood plain in the northern part of the city and county.
Torrential downpours over much of central and eastern Missouri on
Tuesday night and Wednesday have caused a rapid rise along the river
that gives the state its name. Many communities in the Jefferson City
area received between 7 and 11 inches of rain during the storms.
The rain-swollen Missouri spilled over its banks Wednesday in
Jefferson City, prompting evacuations in the state's capital, about 100
miles west of St. Louis. The Missouri broke across the levee on its
north bank, forcing about 300 residents who live in a bottomland area
north of the river to leave their homes.
The flooding also closed the Jefferson City airport and part of U.S.
63 north to Columbia. Flash flooding also snarled traffic in the
downtown area near the state Capitol. Hundreds of state workers were
evacuated briefly from their offices Wednesday when floodwaters short-
circuited an electrical transformer and started a minor fire.
Mudslides and washouts caused by the heavy rains in the central part
of the state interrupted Amtrak and Union Pacific train service
Wednesday between St. Louis and Kansas City, authorities said.
Officials with the State Emergency Management Agency said 32 counties
were listed as ``problem areas,'' including 11 counties along the
Mississippi, six along the Missouri in the central part of the state, 11
in northwestern Missouri and four with flash flooding in the far
southwestern corner.
Officials with the Missouri National Guard said 450 members had been
called out and that they expected to call out another 650 guardsmen
before the flood recedes.
Elizabeth Dole, president of the American Red Cross, visited flooded
areas of St. Charles County Wednesday to observe the organization's
relief efforts.
``We're here to try to do everything we can to help people, to let
them know that Red Cross is on the job to provide food, clothing,
shelter, first aid and to help them with stress,'' Dole said. She said
the agency had $50 million in reserve to help victims of disasters in
the United States and its territories.
Flooding and evacuations of dozens of people also were reported
Wednesday in the towns of Hermann and Washington along the Missouri.
Hundreds of people have been forced from their homes this week in
several communities along the Mississippi north of St. Louis, including
Alexandria, LaGrange, Hannibal, Louisiana and Clarksville. South of St.
Louis, flooding on the Mississsippi has led to evacuations in Kimmswick,
Festus, Crystal City and Cape Girardeau.
Officials with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in St. Louis said all
of the area's records for flooding on the Mississippi, most of them set
in the massive spring flood of 1973, would be broken this summer. The
National Weather Service already has predicted that the Mississippi at
St. Louis will reach 43.5 feet next Tuesday, breaking the record of 43.
23 feet set on April 28, 1973.
The city of St. Louis is protected by a massive floodwall built on
top of its levee. The river would have to rise to 52 feet to reach the
top of the floodwall.
No injuries or fatalities were reported in connection with the
flooding Wednesday. There have been eight flood-related deaths in
Missouri this month.
The Mississippi already has topped flood-control structures upriver
from St. Louis at Clarksville and Winfield, flooding hundreds of acres
of farm fields. Wednesday the river overflowed the Elsberry dike north
of St. Louis, a structure that is nearly 24 miles long and normally
protects more than 23,000 acres of farmland.
The river remains closed to barge traffic from St. Paul, Minn., to
St. Louis. Also Wednesday, the Corps of Engineers closed the Missouri to
barge traffic to prevent damage to levees, 18 of which have failed
recently.
Officials in other low-lying parts of the St. Louis area, including
parts of south St. Louis County and Jefferson County, also were
preparing for high water Thursday, as hundreds of volunteers helped to
fill sandbags and stack them atop threatened levees.
