1999: THE FLOOD THAT FEW EVEN NOTICED

The Mississippi River flood of 1999 will make history not for the devastation and damage it caused but because almost no one noticed.

This year the river at Cape Girardeau got as high as 37.7 feet, well below the record-breaking flood of 1993 when the river topped 48 feet, but high enough to cause city officials to take notice.

Flood stage at Cape Girardeau is 32 feet. The river rose above flood stage in April 19 and remained above flood stage for two months, except for three days in May. The river returned to its banks this weekend.

Record-breaking floods in 1993 and 1995 prompted Cape Girardeau to participate in a flood buyout plan. In addition, the city completed several other projects designed to lessen the impact of a flood.

"With the buyout program, the Flood of '99 has basically been a non-event," said Ken Eftink, development services coordinator for the city. "No one's home has been threatened by this flood."

The work that made this year's flood almost invisible is tied to Cape Girardeau's Project Impact planning. The goal of Project Impact is to make the community disaster resistant.

Mark Hasheider, director of emergency operations for the city, said, "At 37.7, that is just about when the flood water started getting into homes in Smelterville. But no homes are there any more, just two semi storage areas.

"We used to worry about water in the basement of Central Packing. There is no more Central Packing," Hashheider said.

This year's flood did cover a portion of LaCruz street in southern Cape Girardeau. In years past, that would have caused problems for the city's waste water treatment plant. But the road to the plant was raised so employees had no trouble getting to work.

"About the only things that affect us early on in a flood are closing the Themis and Broadway gates," Hasheider said.

The city has been above flood stage 17 of the last 20 years, costing hundreds of thousands of dollars.

In 1993, Cape Girardeau city spent $442,000 to sandbag, to hire extra crews to man pumps and monitor water treatment facilities, to rent emergency generators and the clean up. The flood in 1995, cost another $300,000.

The Flood of 1993 affected 151 Cape Girardeau homes. When the river rose again in 1995, Missouri Governor Mel Carnahan authorized matching grants for federal flood plain buyouts.

Cape Girardeau assembled $2.6 million in funding from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the State Emergency Management Agency, Missouri's Department of Economic Development, the Salvation Army, and InterFaith Disaster Response and bought out 94 homes.

In 1994, 33 families voluntarily relocated. The city demolished these structures with an $88,000 Missouri Department of Economic Development grant.

With these two programs, all but 24 homes have been removed from the flood plain.

Hasheider said money is being saved each flood season. "Think of the state and federal dollars we spent trying to help those people. That money is no longer being spent. We are getting our payback for the money that was spent."

In addition, the city made several improvements to prevent flood-related hardships and hazards.

South Sprigg Street was raised to provide access to the solid waste transfer station and to Lone Star Industries during a flood.

The water intake pumps for Cape Girardeau's main water supply were raised above the 1993 flood level. An emergency generator was installed to ensure the plant's ability to produce safe water during a major power outage.

During last month's wind storm when most of Cape Girardeau lost power for some period of time, the emergency generator at the water plant was used. "Power never did go down and the plant stayed in operation," Hasheider said. "It worked, and nobody noticed."