Emergency levee at Dutchtown holding

Clad in a bright yellow raincoat, Angie Crutsinger stood atop the emergency Dutchtown levee Wednesday watching the water flow swiftly over Highway 25 on the other side.

Crutsinger, the chairwoman of the Dutchtown Board of Trustees, has been working all week to keep floodwaters out of Dutchtown.

Sandbagging along Highway 74 east of Dutchtown, Mo. Wednesday, April 27, 2011. (Fred Lynch)

She and a handful of local residents are sticking it out as the Mississippi River continues to rise, pushing water from the Diversion Channel closer to their town.

Tuesday night water rose rapidly in the area, forcing the closure of Highway 25 at Highway 74 at about 8 p.m.

The emergency levee along Highway 74, built to block water from the Diversion Channel, curves around to connect with a second levee the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and Cape Girardeau County Highway Department have raised and reinforced to contain waters coming from Hubble Creek, just west of Highway 25.

Water continues to flow across the highway from the west. It's impossible to distinguish where the road was and the fields began. It's all underwater now.

Water was two to three feet high up on the levee Wednesday evening.

"It's holding," said Tom Morgan, area commander with the Corps of Engineers. "It's accomplished its job. It's doing what it's supposed to do."

An emergency levee protects the community of Dutchtown from the rising waters of the Mississippi River. (Melissa Miller)

A small existing levee to the south of the emergency levee washed out Tuesday night, flooding several homes between it and the emergency levee.

Dutchtown Clerk Doyle Parmer stood knee-deep in floodwaters Wednesday morning helping finish the emergency levee. He coordinated about 20 inmates from the Missouri Department of Corrections who worked to cover the 6-foot-high gravel levee with plastic and top it off with sandbags. Inmates from the Cape Girardeau County Jail manned a sandbagging station.

Water from recent rainfall fills the ditches north of the emergency levee surrounding the intersection of highways 25 and 74. The Gordonville Fire Department continued to pump the water out and over the levee Wednesday.

"We want to keep the ditches as low as possible," Crutsinger said. "We'd hate for them to flood us out after all this work."

Steve Kuykendall, construction inspector with the Corps of Engineers, said the construction of the emergency levee went smoothly.

"The only problem we're having is the rain," he said.

The emergency levee at Dutchtown should withstand a rise of another five feet at the Cape Girardeau gauge, he said.

"We're just putting the final touches on it. Now, we'll wait and see what happens," he said.

The corps will continue to monitor this and other levees in the area in the coming days, he said.

The main levee along the Diversion Channel is being closely monitored by the corps around the clock, Morgan said. There have been a couple small mudslides along the levee, but right now there are no significant issues, he said.

"Usually when you get a lot of rainfall, that's not uncommon," Morgan said. "There's nothing to worry about at this time."

More than 30 Cape Girardeau County roads are closed due to flooding.

"County highway department workers have multiple crews working to assess and stabilize county roads at this time, at both the north and south ends of the county," said Eric McGowen, Cape Girardeau County emergency management agency public information officer.

There have been no mandatory evacuation orders issued in Cape Girardeau County, but a voluntary evacuation order is in place for the town of Allenville.

Ethan Foster and his wife, Jean, walked more than a mile and across an abandoned train trestle to leave their Allenville home Tuesday evening.

"That's the only way in and out right now," said Ethan Foster, who had parked his vehicle on the other side of the trestle.

The couple is now staying at the Osage Centre shelter operated by the Southeast Missouri chapter of the American Red Cross in Cape Girardeau.

"I'm used to all the floods," said Foster, who has lived in Allenville since the 1960s. "So far it's never gotten into the house, but I don't know this time. I've been thinking about it all day."

While the Fosters stay at the Osage Centre shelter, their two dogs are staying in a pet shelter opened Tuesday by the Humane Society of Southeast Missouri at Arena Park.

"If you need a shelter for your baby, we're here," said volunteer Anita Brandon of Jackson, who is coordinating the shelter efforts.

Four dogs were at the shelter inside the 4-H Building on Wednesday, but several people had called saying they planned to bring more animals in, she said.

"We can take horses, pigs, cows, whatever. We want to be helpful," she said, adding that the livestock barns at the park used for the SEMO District Fair were available if needed.

After the Humane Society received a call about several animals abandoned at a home in Allenville, they attempted to rescue them by boat Tuesday. They couldn't get to the house, Brandon said, but they did rescue a dog floating in the floodwaters. They've named the beagle and basset hound mix Flood. Brandon is hopeful they'll be able to find his owner.

Volunteers and donations of food and supplies are needed at the shelter, Brandon said. A disaster relief grant obtained by the Humane Society provided a Disaster Animal Response Trailer, crates, bowls, litter boxes and other supplies being used now.

mmiller@semissourian.com

388-3646

Pertinent address:

Highway 74 and Highway 25, Dutchtown, MO

1625 N. Kingshighway, Cape Girardeau, MO

410 Kiwanis Drive, Cape Girardeau, MO