Levee breaks, Winfield threatened

WINFIELD, Mo. (AP) -- The levee at Winfield was lost Friday, but emergency workers still hoped to save about 100 homes in harm's way.

The dawn breach at the Pin Oak levee at a spot just south of Winfield slowly began to flood about 3,000 acres. Army Corps of Engineers dam safety chief Travis Tutka said muskrat holes caused the breach.

The good news: the break happened far enough away from the residential area that the water wasn't expected to get there for several hours.

National Guard Col. Michele Melton said plans call for a four-foot-tall sandbag levee to be hurriedly built around the residential area.

"We're not quitting -- the Army doesn't quit," Melton said. "That's why we're here -- to try and save these people."

Melton believes the makeshift levee can be constructed quickly, probably about 300 feet in length per hour. But she wasn't immediately certain how long the levee needs to be.

A spokesman for the Lincoln County emergency management agency said 30,000 sandbags are already available and volunteers will begin filling even more.

The muskrat holes were discovered Monday, though officials thought sandbags had solved the problem. At 4 a.m. on Friday, three Corps officials checked the spot and all was well. About an hour later, the National Guard checked and found water violently pushing sandbags off the levee.

"We thought we had it under control," Tutka said. "It's a difficult road. I wish it didn't turn out this way."

For days, flood fighters at Winfield had been concerned about trouble spots on the northeast side of the levee, where mudslides were hurriedly patched with sandbags. However, the breach occurred on the south section of the levee around 5:20 a.m.

White water poured through a hole that appeared to be about 30 feet long, slowly flooding farmland as it made its way toward some 100 homes and several businesses in Winfield, about 45 miles northwest of St. Louis.

Officials said about three-quarters of those homes already had been evacuated.

Andy Binder, spokesman for Lincoln County emergency management operations, had said Thursday that the Pin Oak levee was holding but showing several signs of strain.

Officials called for a two-day break in filling sandbags on Thursday and Friday, and planned to refresh their sand supply and resume bagging Saturday. They said at the time they had sandbags available to fix problem spots as needed.

But then the levee broke, sinking the spirit of an army of townspeople, out-of-town volunteers and National Guard troops who'd been working feverishly for a week to keep Winfield dry.

For days, Linda Wilmesherr and workers from the horseback riding school she operates have been helping to try and save the levee, often volunteering until 2 a.m.

"Two National Guardsmen told me it was a muskrat hole that actually broke through," Wilmesherr said. "With all the guns in this county, couldn't we kill a muskrat?"

Residents in the neighborhood said emergency sirens blared shortly before 6 a.m.

Sheriff's deputies went door-to-door yelling, "The levee broke. Get out."

Winfield resident Debbie Halcomb, 52, reached by telephone early Friday, said she hadn't yet evacuated her home, as she and others worked to pack up a television, bedding and other items, like paper towels, she said.

She had been sleeping in a bed elevated on milk crates to protect it from potential flood waters when the siren sounded, waking her. "Oh my God. I was hoping it would hold, but it didn't," she said. "I think we probably lost it on this last bunch of rain," she said.

Halcomb had regularly been driving over to the levee to peer at it through binoculars, and credited emergency responders for days of work to try to save the earthen structure, saying they had done "a fantastic job."

A stay-at-home mother who lives in the flooding neighborhood, Denise Marshall, 43, said her family had gotten out safely more than a week ago, because they feared the levee would not hold. She said it was some comfort to have their clothes and keepsakes, such as family photos. While staying at her father's house in nearby St. Peters, she woke to the sound of a helicopter flying overhead and thought it was probably due to a levee breach in Winfield.

"You know, it's mixed feelings," she said.

Her home flooded in 1993 and had to be gutted and cleaned. While she thinks she could clean up again after this flood, she thought it would be hard on her children and would make for a long, hot summer.

"It's the apprehension of wanting to get home," she said.

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Associated Press Writer Betsy Taylor in St. Louis contributed to this report.