Flood fighters battle river
Residents, National Guard shore up West Alton, Portage des Sioux levees
 |
| Ryan Prewitt photo -- Air National Guard Tech. Sgt. Greg Fentress and Staff Sgt. Bernard Hainen on Friday fill a vehicle with sandbags to be placed near Highway 94 in West Alton. |
 
 |
With a swish, swish and smack, Bonderer and other farmers tossed the sandbags to a chain of National Guard troops, who pushed them snugly together, forming a wall on the levee.
"The past few days every farmer I've been talking to has been down asking if they could help and what they could do," said Bonderer, whose family owns Saale Farm and Grain.Residents of northern St. Charles County have watched as the persistent river in recent weeks topped levee after levee upstream, most recently the Pin Oak Levee in Winfield.
As crest predictions rise and fall, residents have been in a state of uncertainty. On Thursday, West Alton residents and other volunteers worked furiously to build up a levee when the Mississippi at Alton was predicted to crest at 33.6 feet, just inches below what the West Alton levee could hold in some spots. On Friday, the National Weather Service lowered the expected crest to 32.8 feet on Sunday.
West Alton Alderwoman Beth Machens said after the crest was lowered the National Guard completed the sandbag wall and spent Friday shoring up other low areas. She hoped the rain would hold off long enough for the water to recede.
"Everybody's just kind of on standby," she said. "Once we get this shored up, it'll be wait and see."
In north central St. Charles County, the river pushed inward, topping two levees since June 20. On Tuesday, water rushed across the Elm Point Levee, which stretches from Highway 370 to Huster Road, despite the efforts of residents and Missouri National Guard troops who had been sandbagging non-stop for days.
When the river spilled across the levee, it filled the St. Louis Youth Soccer Association fields like a bathtub. By Thursday, water had reached the roof of the pavilion in the soccer complex parking lot.
SLYSA President Roger Uphoff said it would take at least six months to regrow the fields from scratch, which would mean the league's 8,000 players might not be able to play on the fields this fall. Uphoff said he planned to meet with team coaches next week to discuss possibilities.
Harry S. Truman Boulevard from north of Ehlmann Road to Highway 370 was closed Tuesday after the river swirled through culverts beneath the highway, leaving a section of Truman submerged beneath floodwaters. By Friday, a section of Elm Point Road south of Highway 370 in St. Charles also was closed.
Water filled a recreational-vehicle and boat-storage lot on Thursday, pushed up onto Huster Road and began to creep across a field toward the Deerfield Village Mobile Home Park on the north side of Elm Point Road, south of Highway 370.
Initially, St. Charles emergency responders warned Deerfield residents they could be in the path of the floodwaters. Deerfield owners and National Guard troops built a small levee around the lowest point in the park on Thursday, and residents helped to make sandbags.
Terri McKee, a Deerfield resident for the past three years, said she packed a few important things but had not evacuated.
"It's such an up-and-down, up-and-down," McKee said. "People tell you one thing, the fire department tells you another. You don't know when to get out. You just watch the water; that's how you decide."
St. Charles city spokeswoman Carol Felzien said city officials thought the sandbagging efforts would be enough to keep water out of Deerfield. She said officials planned to meet with residents at the park to dispel any rumors about services such as electricity or phone lines being turned off.
Officials from the Federal Emergency Management Agency and state agencies toured flooded areas in the county Thursday to make an initial assessment of what assistance would be needed.
On Wednesday, Gov. Matt Blunt announced that President George W. Bush approved his request for an "expedited major disaster declaration" for 22 Missouri counties, including St. Charles County, and the city of St. Louis as a result of flooding and severe weather along the Mississippi and Missouri rivers. The declaration opened the door for federal assistance to flood victims.
As of Friday afternoon, about 200 residential structures in unincorporated St. Charles County had been flooded, said county spokesman John Sonderegger.
In Portage des Sioux on Friday, volunteers helped sandbag around the city's water plant. Farmers and other residents worked Thursday to raise the levee near Portage Road that protects thousands of acres of farmland. Forecasters as of Friday predicted the river would crest Saturday at 30.6 feet at Grafton, Ill. The gauge at Grafton is the closest to Portage des Sioux.
Given that prediction, officials believed the Portage Road levee should hold.
Linda Weber, who owns a farm near the Missouri River in northern St. Charles County, spent most of Thursday - her 32nd wedding anniversary - sandbagging with her husband.
"I'd rather be here than sitting at home wondering what's taking place," she said.
At the 94 West Road House, a bar and grill in West Alton, owner Mike Tittle was moving out just the things that were not necessary for business. He pulled the big wooden tables that usually sit on the parking lot up on the deck, but said that unless the power supply was cut off he wasn't planning to close.
"We'll keep our fingers crossed," Tittle said.
