49-FOOT CREST HEADS DOWN RIVER; REAL TEST OF FLOOD FIGHT IS THURSDAY

Weary floodworkers and sandbaggers who have battled the flooding Mississippi River and Diversion Channel most of July are now bracing for what they hope will be the final battle: fighting an all-time-record crest of 49 feet.

On Friday the National Weather Service revised the Cape Girardeau Mississippi River flood crest up one-half foot. The river is still forecast to crest on Thursday, barring any significant and prolonged rain to the north.

On Saturday the river at Cape Girardeau was at 46 feet. It was forecast to rise to 46.6 feet today, 47.4 on Monday, and 48 feet on Tuesday.

The Ohio at Cairo was at 45.5 feet on Saturday. It is forecast to crest Friday at 46.3 feet.

News of the revised flood crest has forced the Corps of Engineers, levee districts, and floodworkers to take another look at their flood-crest preparations.

Bill Busch of the Corps' St. Louis District area office at Cape Girardeau was in his office for a change late Saturday afternoon. He's usually been on levee patrol since his office went into a 24-hour flood-emergency operation on July 6.

Busch said all levees in the Cape Girardeau area are holding up.

"We've raised a section of the agricultural levee in the Preston Levee District in Southern Illinois, and have done some work on the levee south of the Cape Girardeau bridge, near the head of Marquette Island, where we had problems in 1973," said Bush.

"We've also spotted more sandboils inside the levee districts between the Big Muddy and Gale," he said. "We're putting in some heavy stone along the vertical bank on the east side of the Santa Fe Chute, near Fayville, Ill., to protect the bank and keep the north end of the Fayville-Olive Branch levee from sliding into the water."

Busch said work is also under way to keep the upper end of the Bois Brule levee from breaking. The southern end of the levee, near Belgique, broke last week.

"With the new 49-foot crest forecast at Chester on Thursday, we want to keep the upper half of that levee from breaking near Chester. If it goes, there'll be a lot of swift water flowing over the flooded land." he explained.

Meanwhile, Freddie Krapf, commander of flood operations for the Memphis District between Dutchtown and Cairo, reported the Diversion Channel levee remains in sound condition.

"All 134 of the relief wells are running. We have spotted several sandboils, but they are about 800 to 1,000 feet away from the toe of the levee and pose no problem," said Krapf. "We also have some sandboils behind the levee south of Commerce, but it's nothing that we hadn't expected."

In Cape Girardeau County, Deputy Emergency Services Coordinator Martha Vandivort said the sandbag factory at Jackson will close tonight.

"Sandbagging operations at Dutchtown were expected to be completed at 6 p.m. Saturday. The levee has now been raised to protect against a stage of 50 feet on the Cape Girardeau gauge, with two feet of freeboard," she said.

During the past week as many as 300 to 500 volunteers, including Civil Air Patrol cadets from at least three states, worked during the evening and night hours to fill sandbags.

Vandivort said the remaining sandbags are being taken to the Schnuck's parking lot in Cape Girardeau where people who need them may pick them up.

Volunteers are also needed today to fill sandbags at the Jackson sandbag factory at the intersection of East Jackson Boulevard and Highway 25, and at the Red Star Baptist Church Activity Center on North Main Street in Cape Girardeau.