IN THE FLOOD'S WAKE

STE. GENEVIEVE -- The city's $48.7 million levee project finally came about because of the great Flood of 1993, which besieged Ste. Genevieve throughout that summer and cut off its water supply for two months.

Volunteers from across the U.S. and Canada came to join the storied fight to shore up a rock and sandbag levee that was the town's only protection from the rising floodwaters. They succeeded but it was a close call. The town's 50-foot levee that included 1.1 million sandbags rose six inches above the river's crest.

Flooding again affected parts of the town in 1995, although the historic district was not closed this time. It was the second 500-year flood in two years.

Efforts to build a permanent levee around the city actually date from the flood of 1973, says Vern Bauman, chairman of the Ste. Genevieve Joint Levee District. They failed for lack of money.

The federal government was willing to pay three-fourths of the cost but the town of 4,400 had no means to raise the remaining $12 million.

That changed with the great flood as the National Trust for Historic Preservation gave the city a $5 million grant and the state provided a $5.5 million block grant.

"I think they thought we were going to lose the town," says Bauman.

By a 4-to-1 margin, city voters passed a half-cent sales tax to fund the remaining $1.5 million.

The height of the earthen levee will range from 21 feet to 28 feet. Its length will be 3 1/2 miles, which also is the length of the Ste. Genevieve riverfront.

The levee is designed to protect the town up to a flood level of 52 feet, which is 2 1/2 feet higher than 1993's record crest.