Deadline approaching for flood prep in Canton

ST. LOUIS (AP) -- Northeast Missouri towns said Tuesday that they were hanging on, giving up, or suspending efforts out of confidence they could meet the challenge of a near-record flooding expected later in the week.

Clarksville, where the Mississippi River is expected to crest at record levels Friday, was hanging on with prayers from strangers and volunteers from as far away as sympathetic New Orleans.

With five city blocks already swamped, Mayor Jo Anne Smiley said Clarksville was doing all it could to prepare for Friday's projected 38-foot crest.

"We fix one thing and it breaks," she said. "Sewers are plugged up. We have leaks in walls, and people who need things. We're boating food to people.

"I cry a lot, but I get a lot of e-mail prayers. That helps."

Farther north in Canton, emergency management director Jeff McReynolds said flood preparations would end Tuesday in anticipation of Wednesday's predicted 27.5 foot crest. The river was at 26.2 feet in Canton on Tuesday.

"We feel pretty good," McReynolds said. "We've had 1,800 volunteers since the weekend.

"But it's D-Day today. We have to be done today. We're at 99 percent."

Canton's levee is designed for 24.5 feet of water, but it has a 3-foot extension. Volunteers have added 2 feet on top of that.

McReynolds said his biggest fear is that 10 days of prolonged high water will place undue pressure on the levee.

"Am I nervous? Hell yes," he said.

Levees at Canton and Hannibal, to the south, were the only ones that held in what's known as the Great Flood of 1993. Authorities in both towns believe their levees will hold during this flood too. Hannibal is so confident that it suspended sandbagging of its levee and flood wall on Tuesday.

"We're in pretty good shape," Hannibal Deputy Police Chief Lt. James Hark said. "The river has dropped a tad because of levee breaks north of us. We're expecting a crest of 31.5 feet on the 19th or 20th. We're at 27.74 now.

Downtown businesses, including sites of the city's most famous son, Mark Twain, were dry. "People are walking and driving," Hark said. "It's business as usual."

Water covered some blocks that were transformed from residential to green space after the '93 flood.

In La Grange, just south of Canton, 15 percent of the levee-less town of 1,000 had evacuated. Most of the town sits on a bluff, but homes and businesses in low-lying places had evacuated.

"The town will come back," City Administrator Mark Campbell said. "But how it comes back may have to be rethought. Homes in the flood plain may have to move out and (placed) in a park."

The tiny town of Alexandria, population 166, just south of the Iowa border abandoned sandbagging efforts on its 27-foot levee and evacuated Monday.

North of Alexandria, most of the 100 residents of St. Francisville on the Des Moines River had evacuated. It has no levee.

The Humane Society of Missouri opened a temporary shelter for pets Tuesday in Bowling Green at the Pike County Fairgrounds. People also could drop off pets at the Hannibal Humane Society or the Canton Veterinary Clinic for transfer to Bowling Green.

In the last few days, Lt. Governor Peter Kinder has deployed 359 National Guard members to flood-stricken communities. The Missouri Department of Corrections has dispatched 179 offenders to help fortify sandbags in Clarksville, Canton, Louisiana and Marion County.