Dutchtown hopes new levee puts floods in town's past

If the Great Flood of 1993 brought Dutchtown anything other than misery, it might have forged the town's determination to build a levee to protect the community from the Diversion Channel.

In the broiling July heat of 1993, the flood brought volunteers from all over the region to help build a levee of gravel and sandbags atop Highway 74 in Dutchtown. The levee ran from west of the intersection of highways 74 and 25 to the east end of town. The volunteers suffered sunburns and horsefly bites and struggled with the heat, but eventually their levee extended half a mile and prevented major flooding in the community.

In 1993, flooding also closed Highway 25 into town. Another sandbag levee, this one a quarter mile long, was built on the west side of town to protect it from Hubble Creek flooding.

Sandbagging began in early June and continued through August. "It was an extreme time," says village clerk Bob Moss.

Sandbagging to keep the small community southwest of Cape Girardeau above water has occurred in 1973, 1983, 1993, 1995 and 2002.

After the 1993 flood, the Little River Drainage District built a levee that protects Dutchtown from Hubble Creek. Five years ago, some weary residents asked the Cape Girardeau County Commission to help them find a solution to the Diversion Channel flooding.

The 250 residents of Dutchtown incorporated in 1998 so the community could apply for a grant to build the levee. They were denied a grant two years ago. But last August, Dutchtown was awarded a nearly $300,000 Community Development Block Grant that will enable the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to build a protective levee.

The 12-foot-high earthen levee will extend for 2 miles. The corps will pay $600,000 of the cost of the levee, and the residents of Dutchtown will contribute $25,000.

The construction contract for the levee is scheduled to be awarded in July 2004.