DUTCHTOWN BATTLES RISING FLOODWATERS

DUTCHTOWN -- U.S. Army Corps of Engineers officials and Dutchtown residents cringed Sunday afternoon as light rain began to fall about 4 p.m.

A levee protecting much of the town from the widening Diversion Channel is built, but Corps officials said additional rain or an increase in the predicted Mississippi River crest will demand the levee be built up further.

An official with the National Weather Service at St. Louis said the Mississippi River at Cape Girardeau still is expected to crest early Tuesday morning at 46.5 feet, 14.5 feet above flood stage. The river stage Sunday afternoon was 45.23 feet.

Although the levee is finished, some residents whose homes are on the Diversion Channel side of the levee still are seeking volunteers to help with sandbagging.

"It's like were on the wrong side of the tracks," said Joan Starkey. "We need some help over here too, but no one comes down. They all stay down over there."

"Over there" was in front of the convenience store in Dutchtown. Volunteers were concentrated in that area filling sandbags for the levee construction. They also worked to brace the levee built against Hubble Creek.

"They kind of forgot about these people here," said

James Pense of Zalma was working with the Starkeys and other homeowners on the water side of the levee. He has been a volunteer at Dutchtown since Friday, arriving at the levees before work at Lee Rowan Co. in Jackson. He returns after he gets off at the factory.

"They need some more help here," Pense said Sunday. "So far, they've done a good job at keeping it out of the houses."

About 80 volunteers in Cape Girardeau's Red Star District, north of the city's protective floodwall, were busy Sunday afternoon filling sandbags, which were hauled to homes and businesses along aptly named Water Street.

Stormwater combined with the rising Mississippi River to bury parts of the street in as much as five feet of water.

Darryl LeGrand of LeGrand's Transmission, 1237 N. Water, stacked sandbags around his business Sunday afternoon.

He said the water came up faster this year, but the sandbag and plastic barrier built around the business and adjoining house was holding Sunday afternoon.

The LeGrands staged a dramatic battle with the rising river during the devastating flood of 1993, only to have the levee around their business give way the day the Mississippi's record crest passed Cape Girardeau.

LeGrand said he has considered moving the business to a drier site.

"This really helps us make that decision," he said.