Floods Peril More Towns in Midwest

Flood crests moved downstream across the Midwest today, allowing people to return to some of the thousands of flooded houses from Oklahoma to Illinois, but other communities were threatened as water from up to two feet of rain drained toward the Mississippi.

A new levee break in Missouri threatened to flood two trailer parks, and National Guardsmen were sent to help evacuate them.

During more than a week of flooding, up to 48,000 people are estimated to have been forced out of their homes at one time or another, including 30,000 in Oklahoma, 15,000 in Illinois, 1,000 in Missouri and 1,500 to 2,000 in Kansas.

At least eight deaths have been linked to floods in the region.

Illinois Gov. James R. Thompson declared five new counties disaster areas today, for a total of eight.

In Oklahoma’s hard-hit Bartlesville and in the Tulsa area, many residents returned today to homes that were inundated by up to eight feet of water when the Army Corps of Engineers was forced to open floodgates on brimful reservoirs.

Joan Bolan and her family returned to their Bartlesville house by boat Sunday to remove belongings. She said they have no flood insurance--”We were told it never floods in the area so there was no need.”

But in the northeastern corner of Oklahoma, the Neosho River was still rising at Miami, where all principal streets are under water, and forecasters said it could rise a foot more than previously expected.

“That additional foot affects a significant area of the city,” said City Administrator Alton Rivers. He estimated that an additional 150 families will join the 300 to 350 who have already fled in the city of more than 14,000. Northeastern Oklahoma A&M; Junior College closed for the week.

River Still Rising

And while the flood crest on the Arkansas River moved past Muskogee, Okla., today, at 4.5 feet over flood stage and expanding its normal 100-yard width to three miles over farmland, the river was still rising downstream, the National Weather Service said.

The worst downstream flooding is expected in Van Buren, Ark., where a crest 12 feet above flood stage was predicted by Tuesday night.

Along the Missouri River in Missouri, a levee broke early today in St. Charles County, near St. Louis, and National Guardsmen were sent to help evacuate residents of two mobile-home parks, authorities said.

Upstream on the Missouri, up to six feet of water covered Cedar City, just north of Jefferson City. Most of the town’s 427 residents have been evacuated, but as many as 25 families remain. “They’re living on the second floor of their houses,” said Callaway County Deputy Michael Ponder.

The Mississippi River is expected to crest Wednesday at St. Louis at 40 or 41 feet, about 10 feet over flood stage and more than two feet above the record set in 1973 during a three-month flood.