Town Survives New Crest as Levees Hold : Disaster: Missouri residents express relief as rivers recede after months of heavy flooding. And no sustained rains are in the forecast.

The Mississippi River, a tricky old man, climbed higher Friday to a new crest and then began falling as the levees at this ancient town held fast.

What officials had thought was the crest Thursday evening, at 49.43 feet, turned out to be a ruse. The river kept climbing. Sandbaggers worked through the night plugging leaks in the levees, which threatened to collapse.

Finally, on Friday, the river peaked at 49.6 feet. Then, slowly, it began to fall. The levees held. But Vernon Bauman, directing workers, stayed jittery. He toured the dikes in his pickup truck, with his red hard hat pushed back. He would not declare victory.

“We’ve fought this river hard,” Bauman said, “and so far it’s been a draw.” He inspected levees only four inches higher in places than the peak of the flood. They had been built ever higher during 40 days of hand-to-hand combat with the river. “We’ve learned one thing,” he said. “You can’t turn your back on the Mississippi.”

In St. Louis, 6,600 residents were told they could return home as officials scaled back an evacuation area surrounding propane tanks that had been knocked loose by the flood. They said that chances of an explosion were reduced. Another 6,000 residents who live right next to the tanks were told to wait a while longer.

Two of the evacuees sued Phillips Pipeline Co., owner of the tanks, saying it was negligent. Their class-action suit on behalf of all evacuees said Phillips should have removed propane from the tanks when flooding began. Phillips said it had acted appropriately and could not have anticipated the height of the water.

In Prairie du Rocher, a flood wall leaked here and there but held against a receding flow of water. Town officials declared a tentative victory. They credited their risky system of deliberate breaches in a levee along the Mississippi, which drew the floodwater away from town and dumped it back into the river.

There seemed to be general relief throughout the Midwest after three months of flooding. Both the Mississippi and the Missouri rivers inched downward from record crests throughout the area. Indeed, officials said the Missouri was falling faster than expected. And no sustained heavy rain was in sight.

The floods have killed 48 people and caused damage estimated at $15 billion. In the wake of the floodwater was a heartbreaking, stinking mess. The St. Louis suburb of Chesterfield was an example. The receding Missouri left stacks of dead fish. As they rotted, they gave off a stench that could be smelled miles away.

Cleanup and repairs are expected to take months. Some of those repairs, however, were being made apace. Amtrak, for instance, said it had fixed its flooded rail lines and was ready to resume service in Missouri. But it said passengers should expect delays between St. Louis and Kansas City.

Ste. Genevieve

Without the flood, it would have been festival day in Ste. Genevieve, where thousands of revelers gather every year for the Jour de Fete. But on this, the 28th annual commemoration of its French and German heritage, the city worried about washing away.

“It was a tough decision to cancel the Jour de Fete after so many years,” said Jean Rissover, a city spokeswoman. “But our main streets are closed. What could we do?”

There was no place for the balloons, historical costumes, beer tents, bands, arts or crafts.

Instead, the streets were full of dump trucks carrying loads of stone. At intersections were checkpoints staffed by National Guard troops. And along the levees were townspeople and volunteers who had long ago filled their millionth sandbag.

Normally, the festival takes place right in front of Babe Meyers’ home. She can hear the German bands, smell the sausages and see the tourists from the front window of her wood-frame house.

“It’s usually shoulder-to-shoulder people,” she said. “We look forward to it all year. It breaks up the humdrum of summer.”

Of course, there was no humdrum this summer. Most of the town’s 4,400 residents were still evacuated, waiting for word that the river no longer was threatening to wash away their homes--along with most of downtown.

Ste. Genevieve was founded by the French in the 1700s. It is one of the oldest European settlements west of the Mississippi. In time, the French were joined in the area by German families--and history means much to the people here.

Three French Colonial homes--the Green Treet Tavern, Amoureaux House and Bequette-Ribault, all from the late 1700s--have been damaged by floodwater.

Carl Ekberg, a Ste. Genevieve historian, called the damage “a historical and cultural disaster of the highest magnitude.”

Indeed, it was assessment of damage that concerned Susan Flader, a University of Missouri historian, the most. Flader specializes in French and German settlements in the area.

“Everyone’s focused on the few really old homes that have been touched by water,” she said. “But there are many of them, and the potential damage is great.”

Neither is there much money for restoration.

Even before the floods, Congress had authorized a major levee here, one that would have greatly reduced the danger the town faces. But the project has been held up because Ste. Genevieve cannot afford the $10 million in matching funds that it requires.

The entire city budget is less than $2 million.

How Ste. Genevieve will bear the cost of cleanup alone remains to be seen.

“We have 170 tons of rock and more than a million sandbags in the middle of town,” said Rissover, the city spokeswoman. “Lord knows what we’re going to do with all that.”

Times staff writer Richard E. Meyer in Los Angeles contributed to this story.