Corps explains process, impact of breaching Birds Point levee

Flood fighting on the raging Mississippi River and its swollen tributaries these days has come down to a war of inches -- and now it's a race against the clock.

Col. Vernie L. Reichling, commander of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Memphis District, today said the corps was doing everything it could to avoid blowing holes in the Birds Point levee -- an act that would submerge an estimated tens of millions of dollars of property in the agriculture-rich floodway, destroying its 100 homes and the livelihood of hundreds more.

After days of heavy rains that have pushed river gauges near historic levels, flood-ravaged communities throughout Southeast Missouri and Southern Illinois got a break from Mother Nature and some help from its river brethren up and down the Mississippi and its tributaries.

At Cairo, the confluence of the Mississippi and Ohio rivers, the gauge by mid-afternoon, had risen about half an inch from Wednesday, to 58.8 feet. It stood at just over a foot below the projected crest of 60.5 feet, dangerous territory for a levee system never tested by such a heavy volume of water. The flow was not as fast and as high as expected.

Birds Point received a helping hand from places like flood-battered, Hickman, Ky., Barkley Dam on the flooded Cumberland River, points along the Ohio, the Missouri and the Upper Mississippi rivers, where corps commanders along the flood control system reduced flow to take the pressure off Missouri's swamped Mississippi and New Madrid counties, and Illinois' Alexander County.

"Hold as much as you can -- that is our message to our brothers north and east of us," Reichling said at a news conference at the corps' information center in Sikeston, Mo. "This is a system approach to try to prevent not only the operation of the floodway, but reduce the risk of flooding all over -- from Cairo, Ill., all the way down to New Orleans."

Temporary reprieve

With slightly improved conditions, the corps took off the table -- at least for now -- its plan to detonate explosives on the Birds Point levee, breaching its north and south levee system. Two barges loaded with explosives, destined for Birds Point, today were ordered to remain at a Coast Guard station at Hickman, Ky., until further notice.

But the situation remains tense. Forecasts call for the Cairo river stage to hit 60.3 feet as soon as Sunday morning and crest at 60.5 that afternoon. The water is expected to remain around those levels for several days, putting historically powerful pressure on the levees. More troubling, forecasts call for as much as 4 inches of rainfall over the Ohio and Upper Mississippi rivers Saturday into Sunday.

"We are not out of the woods yet," Reichling said.

The river levels at Cairo would surpass the record 59.5 feet set in the flood of 1937, the last time the floodway was operated, corps officials said.

"This system is being tested like it has never been before," said Tom Minyard, chief of the engineering and construction division for the corps' Memphis district.

The levees at Cairo and Hickman have taken on significant strain, evidenced by growing seepage problems, but the levy system between Commerce, Mo., and Birds Point remains in good shape, Minyard said. That won't matter if the river rises to 61 feet, where the corps would have to "seriously consider" breaching the levee.

Activating the plan

Russell Davis, chief of the operations division for the corps' Memphis district, systematically outlined the steps involved in what the corps describes as "activating the plan."

Ground crews today were expected to have completed the preparation of three sites on the front line levee, setting the positions for the explosions needed to create crevasses -- sending 550,000 cubic feet per second of water through and setting the levee up for its demise. When ordered by Maj. Gen. Michael Walsh, president of the Mississippi River Commission, the explosives will be positioned, and then detonated over a 24-hour period, first at the northern points and then at the southern sections. The breach would take about 20 percent of the pressure off the river, officials said, lowering the river level at Cairo by as much as 7 feet, according to the corps' floodway operation plan, in effect since 1986.

The corps officials did not say the exact effect the breach would have on the river level in Cape Girardeau, but the Mississippi would lower some here.

Davis said the hope is that the river behaves, and operating the spillway becomes a moot point.

"We are listening to the river, attempting to manage flows by moderating releases from Kentucky and the Ohio River," he said. "If the river works for us rather than against us, we'll be able to attenuate the maximum flow below the level where we'd have to activate the plan."

The brunt of the flood fighting campaign is occurring at the river's midsection. Reichling said nearly 200 people are working in the field between Illinois and Arkansas, at a cost of $3.3 million since Phase II of the corps' operations began Sunday.

A soldier's orders

Reichling admits at this point keeping the floodwaters at bay is "more of an art than a science."

Mississippi County residents joined elected officials Wednesday at a town meeting in East Prairie, Mo., voicing their concerns and fears that artificially breaching the levee would be a death sentence for their homes and farms, many of which that have stood for several generations.

Reichling reiterated that there could be significantly more at stake, should the Birds Point levee burst. He pointed to a map of the area that could be impacted, highlighted in a great purple mass, covering "millions of acres and thousands of homes" from Southeast Missouri, into Arkansas and Tennessee. He took issue, too, with the portrayal in the press that operating the floodway is chiefly about saving Cairo, Ill., asserting the focus is the integrity of the entire flood-management system.

"The floodway was designed and built to prevent an uncontrolled failure, and the last thing we want is an uncontrolled failure," he said.

As a federal judge in Cape Girardeau weighed a Missouri lawsuit seeking a temporary restraining order today against the corps' detonation plan, Reichling said he is answering to his Army superiors.

"I'm a soldier. I've been given an order. I'm going to go forward with that order," he said. "At which point in time that order changes, then I'll adjust.

"At this point, we're moving ahead with preparations."

mkittle@semissourian.com

388-3627