FEMA director helps assess damage in Missouri's flooded towns

ST. LOUIS (AP) -- Federal Emergency Management Agency administrator David Paulison was in Missouri on Thursday to visit areas damaged by last week's floods, even as a new round of rain rolled over eastern parts of the state, renewing concerns.

Paulison planned to visit flooded towns along the Meramec river southwest of St. Louis Thursday afternoon, then travel to southern Missouri to see hard-hit towns there. U.S. Rep. Jo Ann Emerson, R-Cape Girardeau, will join Paulison in southeast Missouri.

"I'm glad the administrator is coming to southern Missouri to see the scope and scale of this disaster firsthand," Emerson said in a statement. "We've got homes and farmland still under water. This disaster is going to take a severe toll on the people of our region as well as the economy."

FEMA agents are spreading out through low-lying towns like Eureka and Pacific, assessing damage in homes and business that were inundated after 5 to 12 inches of rain drenched parts of the state early last week.

Paulison planned to speak at a news conference in Valley Park, where a new $49 million levee built by the Army Corps of Engineers held back a 38-foot flood surge Saturday -- what one Corps engineer called a 100-year event.

The Meramec is slowly rising again after eastern Missouri received about 1 inch of rain from showers that started Wednesday afternoon, said National Weather Service meteorologist Thomas Spriggs. More bursts of rain are expected this weekend and early next week, Spriggs said.

While the rains might cause "nuisance flooding" around creeks and low-water bridges, the flood waters aren't expected to be significant, Spriggs said.

"Fortunately, we had a few days of dry weather that allowed the rivers to drop quite a bit," he said, noting that the Meramec has dropped back well below flood stage and is not expected to rise significantly in coming days.

The Mississippi River was expected to crest Thursday about 8 feet above flood stage at Caruthersville, but no significant damage was expected -- the Missouri Bootheel town is protected by a flood levee.

In Cape Girardeau, city officials removed the flood gate in the wall that protects the historic downtown area. The river crested there early this week. It's still above flood stage but is going down.