Flood Victims Weigh the Cost of Life on the River : The Mississippi: Damage in Davenport, Iowa, renews debate over need for levees that have spared other towns.

DAVENPORT, Iowa — The story of how the great flood of 1993 has taken its toll on the Mississippi river towns of Davenport, Iowa, and Hannibal, Mo., is the old fable of the grasshopper and the ant--one unprepared for catastrophe, the other well-protected.

But the end of the story has yet to unfold, and that is what worries people in Hannibal and scores of other riverfront towns, praying their flood walls and levees are strong enough to ward off the Mississippi’s surging waters.

In Davenport, the damage has already been done--more than $100 million worth--and all that the city’s flood-weary merchants and residents can do is ride out the massive tide and mull over whether to build a levee for the torrent next time.

Hannibal, 125 miles to the south, had a newly built concrete barrier ready just in time to confront the flood. But even its flood wall may not be high enough to withstand the predicted 31-foot crest of what one U.S. Army Corps of Engineers official described as a “500-year flood event.”

The implacable rise of the Mississippi has tested the most ardent lovers of the river, confronting them with hard questions about what they would be willing to pay--both in public financing and in despoiled waterscape--to wall off their communities from the next great disaster.

In Davenport, Jill Bjerke, a self-described “river rat” who has seen her fiance’s marina submerge and her basement fill with murky Mississippi water, admits: “I’ve gone back and forth on this.” Now, sadly, like so many others, she sees the need for a levee.

“Whenever I’m upset, I go to the river,” she said, remembering more placid times. “It’s peaceful. It’s isolated. I have the ability to walk away from anything that’s bothering me.”

But on Wednesday, a walk to the Mississippi would have only brought more despair. Along with three blocks of a downtown tourist promenade, all 50 slips of the Davenport Inland Harbor are now under water, and Bjerke, a chiropractor, has watched the river she loves pour into her home.

The Mississippi and its many tributaries have been swollen by torrential rains, which continue throughout the region.

The Mississippi has spilled over two miles beyond its natural bed--up to seven miles north of St. Louis--freezing all barge shipments between St. Paul, Minn., and St. Louis and flooding tens of thousands of acres of Midwestern farmland.

At least 12 people have drowned after underestimating the river’s flood-bolstered currents. And farmers unable to plant soybeans, corn and other crops have already lost more than $1 billion, Bruce Weber, acting administrator for the U.S. Agricultural Stabilization and Conservation Service, said Wednesday.

Davenport, a river town of 100,000 residents, had the opportunity to build a levee, but a 1986 change in federal law that upped the percentage of funding that municipalities must pay for flood control projects soured local council members on the project. Building a flood control levee would cost $70 million--and the city’s share would be as much as $10 million.

The cost and the fear that the city would lose its unobstructed view of the Mississippi--long touted as a tourist attraction--persuaded a council majority to oppose a flood wall, said Alderwoman Ruth Reynolds.

“One of the charms of this city is the view of the river,” said Sheri Power, who was among a group of friends who worked to pump stagnant water out of Chet’s Tap, a basement tavern 150 feet from the river.

As the city cleans up its business district, Mayor Patrick Gibbs says he is “hearing quite a bit of support” for a flood wall. Gibbs hopes that the city’s projected share of the cost might be pared down if federal officials conclude that paying more of the total cost would be worth avoiding future disaster aid payouts.

Bjerke was one of 200 Davenport-area business leaders who went to a city auditorium Wednesday to talk with federal Small Business Administration officials about their eligibility for disaster assistance. When she emerged, a confused Bjerke said that she was on the verge of joining those who agree with Gibbs that a flood wall is now a necessity.

Maybe, Bjerke mused, the city could build a movable levee that would allow Davenport to retain its picturesque riverfront, now awash three blocks deep with sludge-choked water. “That’s what we need,” she said.

There are almost 500 miles of levees, flood walls and other flood control projects snaking along the banks of the upper branch of the Mississippi River. Many of those battlements--built after the last great flood of 1965--appear to be doing their job this time, said Army Corps spokeswoman Denise Yale.

“The people who have flood control projects are quite happy with us,” said Yale. “The (projects) are doing what they were put there to do.”

But even in the newest projects, she acknowledged, flood waters are straining the walls and levees at their weakest and most porous points.

“There’s a lot of heavy seepage,” Yale said. “Many of the levees are just not built to deal with such a great amount of water in this amount of time. A lot of them are getting permeated with water.”

In West Alton, Mo., fears that an earthen levee would give way forced the evacuation Wednesday of 500 residents. More than 150 volunteers who had been sandbagging behind the levee pulled out after National Weather Service forecasters warned that the river there would soon crest two feet above previously predicted levels.

In Hannibal, a new $8-million federally subsidized flood wall has been holding up against the rising waters--which passed 27.6 feet on Wednesday morning.

A town of 18,400 inhabitants, Hannibal has had more than its share of floods over the past 150 years--a recurring epochal event described as “the big rise” by the town’s most famous son, Mark Twain, in his reminiscences of steamboat pilot days, “Old Times on the Mississippi.”

Rising to 33 feet, the new concrete flood wall stretches nine blocks, protecting both the town’s business district and Twain’s boyhood home, his father’s law office and the childhood home of Laura Hawkins, the inspiration for Becky Thatcher in “Tom Sawyer.”

Even if the high water mark crests over the new flood wall, said city engineer Robert Williamson, only 230 structures would be left flooded--a small portion of the town’s 7,000 buildings.

But 100 homes and businesses have been flooded so far, mostly in the south side of the town, where angry residents insist that Hannibal’s leaders failed to protect them by not extending the flood wall far enough.

Connie King, 46, a night clerk at a local Travel Lodge, rushed out into the mud-streaked yard behind the yellow wood-frame house her family has owned for over 30 years.

Eyes tearing, she trembled at the thought of what might happen if water rushes over the top of the town’s flood wall. By Wednesday afternoon, the river, ominous and full of silt, stood three feet from her front door.

“The sheriff said it could be 32 feet by Sunday,” King cried, her hands shaking. “It may not be much, but land o’ mercy, this is my home!”

Mississippi Flooding

The Midwest’s worst flooding since 1965 is taking its toll as rising water breaks through miles of levees, inundating communities along the Mississippi River. Record water levels have left flood control systems along the river virtually helpless in stopping the deluge.

Water Flow on the River: The normal flow of the Mississippi River in Davenport, Iowa, is 512,000 gallons per second. As of Tuesday morning, the river was flowing almost four times its natural flow.

More rain: The thunderstorm pattern that has caused much of the problem is expected to continue through the weekend.

Flood Control on the Mississippi River: The Mississippi River’s flood control system consists of a series of dikes, dams, spillways and levees. Spillways--which siphon off the overflow--are in place in many trouble spots. More common are levees, mounds of concrete, gravel and earth that shield residential areas. The 380 miles of river from Dubuque, Iowa, to St. Louis is roughly 60% leveed.

Closing a Major Waterway: Record rainfall has pushed the Mississippi River over its banks in five states. The flooding has shut down barge traffic between St. Paul, Minn., and St. Louis. The Mississippi transports 60% of the freight moving on inland waterways in the United States.

LEGEND

+ Severe flooding

- Flooding on Mississippi tributaries.

* Closed locks

Record Crests on Mississippi 1993 / Keokuk, Iowa: 26.9 feet 1965 / Camanche, Iowa: 24.7 feet Sources: U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, National Weather Service, WeatherData Inc., World Book Encyclopedia .