More rain likely as Midwest fights floods

Bob Bailey tinkers with a pump as he tries to keep floodwaters from the Mississippi River out of one of his rental properties Sunday in Clarksville, Mo.
Bob Bailey tinkers with a pump as he tries to keep floodwaters from the Mississippi River out of one of his rental properties Sunday in Clarksville, Mo.

CLARKSVILLE, Mo. - Those fighting floods in several communities along the Mississippi River were mostly successful Sunday despite the onslaught of water, but an ominous forecast and the growing accumulation of snow in the upper Midwest tempered any feelings of victory.

The surging Mississippi was at or near crest at several places from the Quad Cities south to near St. Louis - some reaching 10 feet to 12 feet above flood stage. Problems were plentiful: three people dead; hundreds of thousands of acres of swamped farmland as planting season approaches; and roads and bridges closed, including sections of major highways such as U.S. 61 in Iowa and Missouri and crossings at Quincy, Ill., and Louisiana, Mo.

The U.S. Coast Guard said 114 barges broke loose near St. Louis on Saturday night, and four hit the Jefferson Barracks Bridge in St. Louis County. The bridge was closed about six hours for inspection but reopened about 8 a.m. Sunday. Most of the runaway barges were corralled, but at least 10 sank and two others were unaccounted for, Coast Guard Lt. Colin Fogarty said.

Two of the confirmed flood-related deaths occurred near the same spot in Indiana; another was in Missouri. In all three cases, vehicles were swept off the road in flash floods. High water could be responsible for two more, both in Illinois, where a decomposed body was found Thursday in an Oak Brook creek and a body was found Saturday in the Mississippi River at Cora. Investigations continue.

And the danger is far from over, as spots south of St. Louis aren’t expected to crest until late this week. Significant flooding is possible in places such as Ste. Genevieve, Mo.; Cape Girardeau, Mo.; and Cairo, Ill.

Adding to concern is a forecast that calls for heavy rain tonight and Tuesday throughout much of the Midwest. National Weather Service meteorologist Julie Phillipson said an inch of rain is likely in many places, and some places could get even more. Rain is projected from Wisconsin through Missouri.

“That’s not what we want to see when we have this kind of flooding, that’s for sure,” Phillipson said.

Harley-Davidson riders and bicyclists zipped through Grafton, Ill., a tourist town 40 miles north of St. Louis, many pausing to snap pictures of the swollen river.

Anxiety looms regarding the heavy snow the northern Midwest has received this month and what happens when it melts and makes its way into tributaries of the Missouri and Mississippi rivers. Forecasters said as much as 6 inches of new snow was possible in the Black Hills area of South Dakota through this morning.

Hundreds of miles to the southeast, in La Grange, Mo .,Lewis County emergency management director David Keith wasn’t bothered by the soggy forecast. Sandbags were holding back the murky Mississippi from La Grange City Hall, a bank and a handful of threatened homes. The water was receding.

“What we’re worried about now is all that snow melt in North and South Dakota and Minnesota,” Keith said.

AccuWeather meteorologist Alan Reppert said the timing of the snow melt could prove fortunate: It might stay cold long enough in the north to make for a gradual melt, giving the rivers time to thin out. Of greater concern, he said, is the Red River in North Dakota, which could experience significant flooding in the coming weeks.

Along the Mississippi, a handful of river towns are most affected by the high waters - places such as Clarksville, Mo., and Grafton that have chosen against flood walls or levees.

By Sunday, sandbagging had all but stopped in Clarksville, evidence of the town’s confidence that the makeshift sandbag levee hurriedly erected to protect downtown would hold. Volunteers, including nearly three dozen prison inmates, had worked since Wednesday, using 6,000 tons of sand and gravel.

The river was at 34.7 feet Sunday, nearly 10 feet above the 25-foot flood stage - a somewhat arbitrary term the weather service defines as the point when “water-surface level begins to create a hazard to lives, property or commerce” - and expected to rise another foot before cresting today.

Many towns on smaller rivers in other states were dealing with floodwaters, too.

In Indiana, high water was topping levees in the Terre Haute area. Vigo County Emergency Management Agency Deputy Director J.D. Kesler said late Sunday afternoon that the barriers hadn’t failed yet but that some evacuations would be necessary if levees failed in the western Indiana county.

In Grand Rapids, Mich., Mayor George Heartwell declared a state of emergency.

Front Section, Pages 3 on 04/22/2013

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