Voices From the Storm-Ravaged Midwest

Quotes from those hit by the floods:

‘Don’t flush, don’t shower, and don’t drive.”

--Fargo, N.D., Mayor Jon Lindgren

‘If we were to get a major fire downtown . . . the fire department would be overtaxed. We’ll make any effort to evacuate people . . . but we won’t unduly jeopardize our firefighters.”

--Des Moines Fire Marshal Kenneth Danley

‘You see the statue of Tom Sawyer in the yard? If the levee wasn’t here, the water would be up to his head.”

--Henry Sweets, director of the Mark Twain Home and Museum, in Hannibal, Mo.

‘The crest on the Missouri and Mississippi rivers is expected early next week, so we have not seen the worst yet.”

--Sen. Christopher S. Bond (R-Mo.)

‘You better be on the side of the bridge you want to be on when it goes.”

--Highway engineer Tom Jackson on fight to save bridge in Quincy, Ill.

‘This is the most incredibly complex, hassle-creating formula I can think of.”

--Sen. Thomas A. Daschle (D-S.D.) on federal aid package