Missouri, Mississippi Rivers on Rampage

Conjuring memories of the ’93 floods, sandbags and volunteers were out in force Friday as the Missouri River roared toward crests up to 16 feet above flood stage and the Mississippi crept up the steps to St. Louis’ Gateway Arch.

“We’re still here,” Hartsburg Mayor Mike Rodemeyer proclaimed after his community built a levee of crushed rock and sandbags in a dozen-hour span ending at daybreak Friday. “We’re still dry.”

Pitching in is just “part of living around” the Missouri, volunteer Kevin Nahler added.

To the east, workers put up another section of St. Louis’ floodwall as the Mississippi continued its slow rise under bright sunshine.

Last week’s storms have forced rivers and creeks across the Midwest beyond their banks. Two deaths have been blamed on the high water.

Across the Mississippi, Federal Emergency Management Agency officials set up a command post in Collinsville, Ill., to assess damage in two of the worst hit counties: Madison and St. Clair, where officials said 1,200 people were forced from their homes.

Down river in Kimmswick, Mo., an army of volunteers was filling and stacking sandbags.

“I came over to help others and to help save their houses,” said 8-year-old Paul Brauch.

With high crests expected along a 200-mile stretch of the Missouri from Boonville east to St. Charles, where it flows into the Mississippi, officials ordered people in flood-prone areas to get out.

“Some aren’t leaving, of course, but a lot of them left even before notification. They’ve been through it before,” said Petra Haws, emergency management spokeswoman for St. Charles County.

As for those crests due this weekend, Army Corps of Engineers spokesman George Hanley was succinct: “Bad. Bad. Super bad.”

The 1993 floods claimed 48 lives in nine Midwest states.