Residents battle flood waters along Mississippi

Source: Agencies  |   2008-6-23  |     NEWSPAPER EDITION

A sign indicating a road closure lies under water as the Mississippi River floods Main Street in downtown LaGrange, Missouri, the United States. More in photo gallery

---

AMID the battle to hold back the swollen Mississippi River, some American towns got an unwelcome surprise as river levels rose higher than projected at the weekend.

Recent levee breaks north of Canton had allowed the river level to drop at towns like Canton and Hannibal in northeast Missouri.

Officials knew the water would rise again to crests expected during the weekend, and while the amount of the increase caught them off guard, it did not make things any worse.

Residents in Canton were keeping a tight watch over the city's levee, but it continued to hold strong against the Mississippi.

Flooding and widespread storms this month have forced thousands from their homes and inundated towns and cities along rivers in six American states, killing 24 and injuring 148 since June 6.

But while the swollen Mississippi has topped or broken through levees for hundreds of kilometers above St Louis, the flooding has not led to any deaths or significant injuries yet in Missouri or Illinois.

The Mississippi reached 8.02 meters on Saturday morning at Canton, after dipping below 7 meters two days earlier, and was expected to crest later at 8.05 meters.

That's still more than 30 centimeters lower than the record set during the Great Flood of 1993, and 90 centimeters below the top of the city's levee.

The latest reading was "a full foot (30 centimeters) higher than we expected it to be," said Canton emergency management spokeswoman Monica Heaton. "The levee's fine, but the river did another unexpected thing last night."

Forecasters said the river would crest several inches higher than expected in Hannibal, Missouri, and at Quincy, Illinois, where the river was set to crest late in the day more than 60 centimeters below the 1993 flood.

Hannibal emergency management director John Hark said the river was well above flood stage but still about 90 centimeters below the record set in 1993. Before a levee break north of Hannibal in Meyer, Illinois, allowed some water to drain out of the river last week, Hannibal was expecting a crest at or near the record.

At Foley, more than half of the homes in the town of 200 residents were under water, and townspeople were deciding whether to go back or move out.