Area counties begin to assess flood damage

He watched the parade of airplanes, tractors, combines and trucks filled with grain, and Perry County emergency management director Hank Voelker was never so happy to be inconvenienced.

"When the airplanes started coming over the levee, that was pretty awesome," Voelker said of the Sabreliner Aviation aircraft. "I almost got choked up."

The array of vehicles was returning Monday to areas hardly touched by floodwaters. Voelker said he has not received a single report of structural flood damage in the county. Many surrounding fields still are underwater, but Voelker does not think the fields will be damaged.

Missouri Department of Transportation Inspectors were examining the Chester Bridge, and Voelker was expecting it to be opened by Tuesday. The bridge later was reopened Monday night.

Perry County employees now can start the three-month process of clearing debris that has collected around the Chester Bridge.

A man walking under the Bill Emerson Memorial Bridge is reflected Monday in receding floodwater along the train tracks near the Missouri Dry Dock in Cape Girardeau. (Laura Simon)

"We are just about as happy as we can be," Voelker said of the lack of damage in his county. "We consider ourselves very lucky."

Voelker was expecting a catastrophic event. There were some predictions the levee in Perry County would break or be topped by water, and the homes of all those in the levee district would become a permanent part of the Mississippi river. The effort to get all of those farm vehicles, planes and grain out of the levee district showed a sense of urgency. The National Guard set up three way stations in the 32-mile route out of the flood area to meet residents as they moved their equipment to both catalogue their movements and act as a warning system if the levee broke.

A journey south along the Mississippi reveals towns that were not as fortunate. Cape Girardeau County emergency management director Richard Knaup said the river is still too high, although it dropped 3 feet in the past two days, and there are still too many homes surrounded by water to assess damage caused by the flood or begin clearing debris.

He expects there will be about 63 homes damaged by flooding in rural Cape Girardeau County.

He said about 26,000 acres are under water, with 19,000 being tillable farm land. He's not as sure as Voelker the flood will not hurt the land's fertility, adding the flood of 1993 left a large amount of sand. In Cape Girardeau, there still is water in the Red Star District, although Cape Girardeau employees were cleaning the Sloan Creek Bridge on Monday, assistant public works director Stan Polivick said.

Polivick predicts between 20 and 25 homes and eight businesses are damaged by flooding in Cape Girardeau.

Cape Girardeau also is dealing with two sinkholes south of town, Mayor Harry Rediger said.

Cape Girardeau County appears lucky in comparison with Alexander County, Illinois. Alexander County emergency management official Frank Blakemore said there is no way to guess the total damage in the county, although he thinks about 150 to 200 people were affected and at least 20,000 acres of farm land were covered with floodwaters.

"We can't get down the roads to see what's affected," Blakemore said.

Estimates before the flood struck towns such as Olive Branch was it would affect 1,500 people.

"It's not going to be as bad as we thought," he said.

Scott County, Missouri, did not sustain as much damage as Cape Girardeau County. But the main area affected, Commerce, runs nearly exclusively on septic tanks, Scott County emergency management director Thomas Beardslee said. The flood water mixes with the sewage in a septic tank.

Beardslee's preliminary estimate for damage is two homes are destroyed, four sustained major damage, three had minimum damage and two more are affected by floodwaters.

He also expects a massive amount of debris to clean up.

"You have to do something with the sandbags," he said as an example. "If you don't, they'll be there forever."

Jackson County and Union County in Illinois sustained no flood damage. Union County emergency management director Dana Pearson said his county is dealing with sand boils near the levees. In Jackson County, Grand Tower residents moved back after a precautionary evacuation, Jackson County emergency management deputy coordinator Shawn Priddy said.

As county officials in Missouri and Illinois are cleaning debris, they will also begin assessing the damage from the flood and work with state and federal emergency management agencies. While Missouri was declared an emergency federal disaster area by President Barack Obama, that designation applies to receiving services from the government, not restitution.

Mike O'Connell, communications director for the Missouri Department of Public Safety, said this assessment of flooding damages already has started in southwest Missouri.

"Clearly, there's enough to meet the designation for the state of Missouri," O'Connell said.

Illinois Emergency Management Agency communications manager Patti Thompson said the state also would be in line for national disaster designation.

Rediger hopes to use federal funding to continue buyouts in floodplain areas -- which will also be assessed by FEMA and possibly changed, Knaup said -- and complete the $20 million renovation of Cape Girardeau's floodwall. Rediger spoke to the media as a part of a conference call with Alton, Illinois, Mayor Brant Walker and New Madrid, Missouri, Mayor Donnie Brown. All three mayors hope the pre-disaster funding from the federal government will increase.

Walker is especially concerned about the frequency of flooding, with his city suffering four of the 10 worst floods in its history in two years. To combat the flood this time, the city put up a temporary 1,000-foot wall made of interlocking concrete and bolstered with pool lining at its base and sandbags facing the river.

"We do have experience," Walker said, "because we're doing this all the time."

bkleine@semissourian.com

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