Floodwaters Begin to Retreat in Midwest : Weather: Despite storms in Missouri, most swollen rivers and streams fall back from their crests. But officials remain on alert in Illinois.

Flood-weary residents watched Friday as the Meramec River dropped more than two feet from its crest, pushing a layer of muck into many homes and businesses.

Thunderstorms that moved across much of Missouri on Friday--producing damaging wind, tornadoes and hail--failed to reverse the downward trend of the Meramec and other swollen streams in eastern Missouri.

Most other streams that flooded this week from Oklahoma up the Ohio Valley also were receding, but National Guard troops remained on duty in Illinois, where some streams continued rising.

At Valley Park’s Sacred Heart Church, where hundreds of flood evacuees had gathered in recent days, the roadway in front of the building was dry Friday.

Just the night before, as the Meramec crested at 37.4 feet, or 21 feet above flood stage, several feet of water had covered the road about 50 feet away. By Friday morning, the river was down to 35.1 feet.

Candy Wagner said she was anxious to find out how her first-floor apartment had fared. She, her husband and their teen-age son had moved there two months ago from St. Louis, about 15 miles away.

Despite water up to the ceiling at the flood’s peak, Wagner said she plans to stay.

“Out here it’s nice to lay in bed at night and hear the trains go by,” she said. “In the city, we’d lay in bed at night and hear gunshots.”

But James Hutching, who was forced out of his apartment Tuesday along with his wife and two small children, said he had finally had enough.

“I’ve lived here 30 of my 35 years and this is it,” Hutching said. “I’m not coming back. I don’t know where I’m going to go, but it’s going to be someplace high and away from water.”

The Meramec was forecast to fall below the 16-foot flood stage at Valley Park by Sunday.

Elsewhere in Missouri, the Missouri River was falling or cresting from Jefferson City to St. Charles, just above where it joins the Mississippi River north of St. Louis.

The only river still rising in or around the state was the Mississippi south of St. Louis. It was expected to crest at 11 feet over flood stage near Ste. Genevieve during the night to nine feet above flood stage at Caruthersville in the Missouri Bootheel on Tuesday.

Friday’s stormy weather aggravated problems for flood-weary residents in southern Illinois. About 100 National Guard troops helped sandbag, monitor rising rivers and watch for looters along the Sangamon and Embarras rivers in central Illinois and the Cache River in southern Illinois.

“It’s rough and it’s raining like a son of a gun,” said Buddy Warren, a resident of Miller City who planned to stay at his home, which was threatened by high water.

About 10 families had been evacuated from the Miller City area since the Mississippi broke through a levee late Wednesday, said Alexander County Sheriff Buddy Mitchell.

“There were some families that didn’t want to leave, but they finally decided to,” he said.

The Army Corps of Engineers reported no new evacuations Friday, following earlier evacuations of about 40 people from elsewhere in southern Illinois, where the Mississippi and Ohio rivers backed up into the Cache River.