DESPITE HEAVY RAIN, RIVERFEST CROWDS RETURN FOR BIG FINALE

The '94 edition of Cape Girardeau Riverfest opened to a huge crowd Friday night, due in part to ideal weather conditions.

But an early afternoon thunderstorm put a brief damper on some of the Saturday afternoon activities, and forced more than an hour delay in the evening's fireworks display.

After the rain stopped, the crowd began to increase, and by 9 p.m. Saturday, cars were nearly bumper to bumper on Broadway, Lorimier, Independence, and other nearby streets, as motorists looked in vain for open parking spaces.

At about the same time, police had to be called to open a safety lane on the courthouse steps because of the immense crowd gathered for the two evening concerts.

Commenting on the opening night of Riverfest, Peggy Barringer, president of the Riverfest Board of Directors said: "It was great. We had a crowd far beyond our expectations. It was impossible to judge how many were there. All I know is that we had wall-to-wall people. And you couldn't even see any grass on the courthouse lawn during the Beatles concert. It was just a solid mass of people."

By early Friday evening, cars were parked bumper-to-bumper on Independence, Themis, Broadway and other side streets as far west as Frederick Street. The sidewalks were crowded as people walked toward the downtown area.

Throughout Friday afternoon and early evening, fully-loaded Ryder Transportation shuttle buses were dropping off Riverfest-goers at Courthouse Park, and at other downtown locations.

Barringer said, "The shuttle buses have really been a big help to us each year, as more and more people take advantage of them. It really cuts down on the congestion because there is always limited parking."

The shuttle buses operated on a regular schedule Friday and Saturday, transporting passengers from the West Park Mall to Riverfest.

Barringer said the Saturday crowd was building when the storm struck at about 2 p.m.

"We had a tremendous crowd until the heavens opened up on us," she said. "But most people waited it out under the awnings on Main Street, and you can see the crowd is getting larger even as we speak (at 5 p.m.). We're expecting the Saturday night crowd to be just as big as that on Friday night."

By 3 p.m., the storm had moved into Southern Illinois and the sun was back out for the rest of afternoon.

Barringer explained the fireworks display had to be moved back because the "shooters" needed sufficient time to load the fireworks shells on the barge anchored across the river from the Themis Street gate.

She said, "They have to have a certain amount of time to load the fireworks shells. They couldn't do it while it was raining and lightning. So we decided to go ahead and start the Ozark Mountain Daredevils and Martina McBride concerts as scheduled, but delay the start of the fireworks display until after the McBride concert, at about 10:45 p.m."

Barringer said the rest of the Saturday afternoon activities were held despite the storm.

"Everything happened. They just happened at a different time," she said. "We moved the Little Miss and Mister Riverfest Contest inside to the second floor of Port Girardeau, thanks to the kind of assistance of the folks at the Port.

"We ran the turtle races in the rain, under the yellow caution flag," she quipped.

Cape Girardeau Police said this year's Riverfest crowd was well-behaved.

Lt. Tracy Lemonds, in charge of the Riverfest law enforcement detail, said there were no arrests on Friday night or Saturday, up to 5 p.m. "We had a report of two fights late Friday night, but when we arrived, no one was there," he said.

The thunderstorm, which developed shortly after 1 p.m. in west Cape Girardeau County, prompted the issuance of a severe thunderstorm warning after weather spotters in Gordonville reported heavy rain, hail and strong winds. The National Weather Service at Paducah said it received reports of tree limbs blown onto power lines with hail in the Gordonville area.

Cape Girardeau County Emergency Services Coordinator Brian Miller said heavy rain was reported from just south of Jackson toward Cape Girardeau. Miller said Presiding Commissioner Gene Huckstep reported the storm dumped over two inches of rain at his residence, located north of Cape Girardeau, near I-55.

The Jackson Fire Department measured .30 of an inch of rain, while the weather station at the Cape airport measured .45 of an inch of rain.