EMERSON: LEVEE AT MCBRIDE WILL BE FIXED

A broken levee in the McBride area in Perry County will be repaired at federal expense, U.S. Rep. Bill Emerson said Wednesday.

"All (federal) levees that have been damaged or have broken will be repaired," he said.

The Bois Brule levee break along the Mississippi River near McBride is now about 1,200 to 1,500 feet in length, said Emerson, who toured the flooded area near Perryville by barge Wednesday morning.

He said repairs to the levee will begin as soon as river conditions permit. "I would hope within two weeks that they will be hauling rock in there. We are talking about an emergency. We've got to get that fixed."

The area, he said, has to look ahead to winter and spring, times when water levels are usually high.

The Corps of Engineers levee in Perry County was the only federal levee in Emerson's 8th Congressional District that was breached by Mississippi River floodwaters.

The congressman had visited the area several weeks ago before the levee broke.

"It was a very stark contrast to go back there today and see the entire area I had been traversing under water, in many instances as deep as 15 feet," he said following the tour.

Emerson said that in the flooded town of McBride, water still covers Highway 51 to a depth of 15 feet.

The levee broke July 25, flooding the McBride bottom, an area of farmland, and two major industries Gilster-Mary Lee Corp., which makes popcorn, and the aircraft firm Sabreliner.

The two plants, which employ about 375 people, were flooded as were homes. About 70 families or about 300 people live in the area, Emerson said.

More than 20,000 acres of farmland in the McBride bottom have been affected by the flooding, he said.

In viewing the flood-ravaged area Wednesday, Emerson and area officials traveled over water-covered corn fields and the parking lots at Sabreliner and Gilster-Mary Lee.

"You've got all that corn rotting under the water," he said.

Ironically, Emerson's office had asked the Corps of Engineers to inspect the adequacy of the Bois Brule levee at least a year ago. That study was nearing completion when the levee broke.

"Obviously, it was not adequate," Emerson said.

The Cape Girardeau Republican said it's clear the $5.7 billion aid package approved by Congress won't be enough to deal with the flood-devastated Midwest. He said he expects Congress to approve a supplemental appropriation.

Emerson said that farmers affected by the flooding can expect to receive federal aid sufficient to cover most of their production costs.

"They won't be well off; they won't make any money, but at least they won't be wiped out," he said.

On another subject, Emerson criticized President Clinton's deficit-reduction act as bad medicine for the nation's economy.

"The taxes contained in this bill are retroactive to the first of January, and not only are the living taxed, but the dead are taxed as well," he said.

The so-called spending cuts are really just limits on the rate of spending growth, he said.

Even with the legislation, Emerson said, the federal deficit will increase by at least $1.5 trillion over the next five years.