Governors tour flooded areas amid threat to more homes

Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon and Gov. Bruce Rauner of Illinois toured flood-ravaged areas Saturday as near-record crest predictions of the Mississippi River and levee breaks threatened more homes.

While the worst of the dangerous, deadly winter flood was over in the St. Louis area, farther south, things were getting worse. Two more levees succumbed Friday, bringing to at least 11 the number of levee failures.

The flood, fueled by more than 10 inches of rain over a three-day period that began last weekend, is blamed for 24 deaths.

On Friday, water from the Mississippi, Meramec and Missouri rivers was largely receding in the St. Louis area. Two major highways — Interstate 44 and Interstate 55 — reopened south of St. Louis. Some evacuees were allowed to return home.

But in the far southwestern tip of Illinois, the 500 or so people living behind the Len Small levee, which protects the hamlets of Olive Branch, Hodges Park, Unity and rural homes, were urged to move to higher ground after the Mississippi began pouring over the levee.

It's going to get ugly.

Alexander County Board Chairman Chalen Tatum said sandbagging efforts were cut off because it was too dangerous for the volunteers. Far more water is to come before the Sunday crest.

"It's going to get ugly," he said.

In central Illinois, the body of one of two teenagers missing since Monday was located Friday. Devan R. Everett, 18, was found in the water near where crews found the pickup in which he and the other teen were last seen.

Illinois Emergency Management Agency spokeswoman Patti Thompson said the discovery of the missing teen's body and a flood-related death in Livingston County earlier in the week raised the state's flooding death toll to nine.

On Saturday, Illinois' governor resumed his tour of flood-damaged areas for the second day, with planned stops in Cairo and Olive Branch. A day earlier he activated Illinois National Guard soldiers to help with flood recovery efforts as needed. In Missouri, Nixon planned stops in Eureka and Cape Girardeau.

The main culprit in the St. Louis region was the Meramec River, a relatively small Mississippi tributary that bombarded communities in the far southwestern reaches of the St. Louis suburbs during the week. By Friday, it was relenting, but not before some points topped the 1993 record by 4 feet.

Two wastewater treatment plants were so damaged by the floodwaters that raw sewage spewed into the river. Hundreds of people were evacuated in Pacific, Eureka, Valley Park and Arnold, where many homes took in water.

William Reynolds said he moved at least $50,000 worth of inventory from his Valley Park store to the second story of his nearby home when the evacuation was ordered. He was still unpacking Saturday after the evacuation was lifted.

Jay Newman, chef at Frederick's Pub and Grill in Fenton, said he was mostly stuck in his Arnold home for two days because of the flooding, which closed most of the area roads.

"It was bad from every direction," Newman said.

Among the displaced were Damon Thorne, 44, and his 60-year-old mother, Linda, who live in an Arnold mobile home park that washed away after a small private levee proved no match for the surging Meramec. The Thornes were staying in a Red Cross shelter at a Baptist church.

We have no where to go.

"We're just basically homeless," Damon Thorne said. "We have nowhere to go."

In southeast Missouri, the Mississippi crested overnight Friday but not before damaging about two-dozen homes in Cape Girardeau, a community of nearly 40,000 residents that is mostly protected by a flood wall.

"What we'd like people to know is that in Cape Girardeau there have been so many precautions in place that even given the magnitude of this event it's really gone remarkably well for us," Molly Hood, Cape Girardeau's deputy city manager, said Saturday.

But elsewhere, the Illinois River continued to rise Saturday and could near historic crests Tuesday or Wednesday, according to Thomas Spriggs, meteorologist with the National Weather Service in St. Louis.

"It's still a very significant flood," he said Saturday. "It's going to be at major flood stage for the next three days."

Parts of the South were also in the flood's path. Moderate Mississippi River flooding is expected in Memphis. The National Weather Service issued a flood advisory for the Cumberland River at Dover, Tennessee, through Monday evening.

Minor flooding along the Ohio River was affecting the Kentucky cities of Owensboro and Paducah, and the crest wasn't expected until Thursday.