Floodwaters encroaching on Dutchtown, highways

Editor's note: the following story has been edited to correct the highway name at Rockview.

The fast-rising waters of the Mississippi River are again threatening Dutchtown.

Dutchtown prepared itself for backwater flooding from the river once this spring. Now the Mississippi is expected to crest higher than before, possibly more than 13 feet above Cape Girardeau's flood stage by Thursday.

Doyle Parmer has been instructing inmate crews from Farmington Correctional Center in sandbagging efforts since 8 a.m. Monday. The Missouri Department of Transportation will close Route A and Highway 74 at 8 a.m. and Highway 25 at noon today.

The bags are stacked 31 inches high along Highway 74 near its intersection with Highway 25. This makeshift wall should protect the town up to 45.5 feet on the Cape Girardeau gauge, which is the height at which the river is expected to crest Thursday. That level would tie the sixth-highest crest on record. The river was near flood stage as late as last Friday.

The water comes over Highway 74 at a little more than 41 feet on the east side of Dutchtown.

Thirty-nine inmates from the Farmington Correctional Center work on the sandbagging efforts in Dutchtown, Monday, June 3, 2013, in preparation for the rising Mississippi River flood water. (Laura Simon)

Parmer tells residents near the area to move or, at the least, get their things onto high ground. A few households at highways 74 and 25 are moving everything out.

Dawn Moss' family moved into their home on Highway 74 last year. They're renting a storage unit and packing everything into a trailer.

"We're not moving out," Moss said. "We're just getting everything out of it, let the water recede, come back, clean it up, move back in."

The levees in her backyard only go up to 44 feet. Her five children play on the sandbagged walls with three neighborhood children.

"There's no time to waste," she said. "You've got to act immediately."

Moss' neighbors, however, aren't going anywhere. Lisa Summers said her family has survived two floods already, one in Delta and one in Allenville. If the highway is blocked, she said she'll just park at the end of the block. The family piled more sandbags along the side of its house Monday.

Dutchtown has submitted three applications for a buyout from the Federal Emergency Management Agency because the guidelines keep changing, Parmer said. The last application was submitted three weeks ago.

Currently, the Dutchtown area is categorized in a zone that floods 1 percent of 100 years.

Parmer said Dutchtown has flooded 12 times in 25 years with major floods in 1993, 1995, 2002, 2008 and 2011. Parmer said the town paid more than $60,000 for a study to prove the area is flooded on a much more frequent basis than the zoning indicates.

Parmer said Dutchtown residents haven't heard back from FEMA officials, but the normal wait period is six to 10 weeks. He estimates it could be July or August before they are contacted, though, because of other disasters such as tornadoes in Oklahoma.

Charles Dumey, right, and his brother Mike remove items from their mother's house in Dutchtown, Mo., Monday, June 3, 2013, as floodwaters from the Mississippi River encroach on the small Southeast Missouri town. (Laura Simon)

High water could make Allenville, population 117, an island. Just one county road is expected to remain passable at Allenville. If it floods, the small town would be reachable only by boat, said Cape Girardeau County spokesman Eric McGowen. But he said locals were taking things in stride.

"The residents are pretty good at taking care of themselves," he said.

The closing of the roads around Dutchtown means only one route remains for people from Chaffee, Mo., Delta or areas to the south to travel to Cape Girardeau. A train derailment last month caused the closure of Route M at Rockview, Mo., between Chaffee and Scott City. However, the new Route AB extension provides another route to Interstate 55, and thus Cape Girardeau, between Chaffee and Dutchtown.

Flooding also has closed Route E near Commerce, Mo., in Scott County, and parts of routes A and E in Perry County.

North Scott County Ambulance District manager Larry Chasteen said the road closings may cause a delay in some cases, but the need for its services in the Chaffee area are low. Chasteen said the only areas that would be affected are the routes between Benton, Mo., and Commerce, but alternate routes already have been chosen.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

botto@semissourian.com

Pertinent address:

Dutchtown, Mo.

Allenville, Mo.