Spring Break
Waterlogged levee under pressure from Mississippi
The Associated Press
Issue date: 6/25/08 Section: News
"Do we expect more slides? Absolutely," Binder said.
Officials spent nearly six hours choking off the leak caused by a muskrat burrowing in the soft ground early Monday.
Several miles down the river, the Elm Point levee in St. Charles succumbed early Tuesday. But the breach there swamped only a soccer field and a sod farm, and St. Charles Assistant Fire Chief Rich Oney said residents of a nearby mobile home park would likely stay dry.
The flooding from the Elm Point levee break will come close to only two homes, he said, and the residents of both have decided to stay put. There is no threat of flooding along nearby Missouri 370, a major highway running through suburban St. Charles County.
A total of 35 levees have overtopped during the Midwest flooding, and seven of them had been federally designed and constructed, said Ed Hecker, chief of the office of homeland security for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. He said the nation's levee system wasn't designed to hold back such extraordinarily high flood waters, particularly in rural communities such as Lincoln County.
"This system pretty much performed as designed," Hecker said.
The river continued to recede Tuesday from the Iowa line down through the lock and dam at Saverton, about 90 miles north of St. Louis. The river had dropped a foot Tuesday morning at Canton following a Sunday crest of 13 feet above flood stage.
"We need to stay vigilant until we're below 24.5 feet - hopefully by the end of this week," said Canton emergency management director Jeff McReynolds. "We're going to be on a yo-yo with the river for a while. It's going to be a long summer."
Rain in the St. Louis area Tuesday wasn't expected to have any effect on the river level. But forecasters are nervous about storms expected to hit northeast Missouri and central Iowa on Wednesday and Thursday, said National Weather Service meteorologist Mark Fuchs.
"It'll keep water in the system. That's for sure," Fuchs said. "That could turn the river around. That could lead to higher crests."
Officials spent nearly six hours choking off the leak caused by a muskrat burrowing in the soft ground early Monday.
Several miles down the river, the Elm Point levee in St. Charles succumbed early Tuesday. But the breach there swamped only a soccer field and a sod farm, and St. Charles Assistant Fire Chief Rich Oney said residents of a nearby mobile home park would likely stay dry.
The flooding from the Elm Point levee break will come close to only two homes, he said, and the residents of both have decided to stay put. There is no threat of flooding along nearby Missouri 370, a major highway running through suburban St. Charles County.
A total of 35 levees have overtopped during the Midwest flooding, and seven of them had been federally designed and constructed, said Ed Hecker, chief of the office of homeland security for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. He said the nation's levee system wasn't designed to hold back such extraordinarily high flood waters, particularly in rural communities such as Lincoln County.
"This system pretty much performed as designed," Hecker said.
The river continued to recede Tuesday from the Iowa line down through the lock and dam at Saverton, about 90 miles north of St. Louis. The river had dropped a foot Tuesday morning at Canton following a Sunday crest of 13 feet above flood stage.
"We need to stay vigilant until we're below 24.5 feet - hopefully by the end of this week," said Canton emergency management director Jeff McReynolds. "We're going to be on a yo-yo with the river for a while. It's going to be a long summer."
Rain in the St. Louis area Tuesday wasn't expected to have any effect on the river level. But forecasters are nervous about storms expected to hit northeast Missouri and central Iowa on Wednesday and Thursday, said National Weather Service meteorologist Mark Fuchs.
"It'll keep water in the system. That's for sure," Fuchs said. "That could turn the river around. That could lead to higher crests."
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