Looking back at 2005

In 2005, we answered Katrina's call by offering the shirts off our backs. We also paid $3 a gallon for gas.

It was a year that saw our crops wither under the weight of a heavy Midwestern sun. The summer heat also stole three local lives and killed others across the state.

We grieved again in 2005 as three of our fallen soldiers -- including a new father from Jackson -- were placed to rest after their lives were snuffed out by roadside bombs in the war on terror in Iraq and Afghanistan.

A dam gave way, injuring a family. Higher education institutions battled it out. There was a public school victory in Jackson.

A little boy died after being hospitalized with a severe staph infection and an investigation revealed a home piled with garbage, animal feces and other debris.

A little girl lost her arm in a train accident.

It was, no doubt, a year of sorrow and conflict. But it was also a year of politics, major health issues and rethinking our place in the world.

Perhaps, most of all, it was a year that reminded the world of America's generous spirit.

The following are the top 10 stories of the year as voted by the Southeast Missourian news department. They appear in no particular order:

Answering Katrina's call

Katrina's winds, coupled with hurricane-spawned tornadoes, cut a path of destruction deep into the South. Levees collapsed, letting in flood waters that affected 80 percent of New Orleans, which was largely built below sea level. The storm killed more than 1,300 and displaced another 1.5 million, mostly from Mississippi, Louisiana and Alabama.

It was far from home, but Southeast Missouri residents responded. People in the region donated time, money, household items and food. Camps run by volunteers were set up to help the estimated 1,000 people from the Gulf Coast who ended up in Southeast Missouri.

Members of the Cape Girardeau-based 1140th Engineer Battalion were sent to New Orleans, spending almost a month helping clear debris from the streets. While there, the soldiers fed abandoned dogs and handed out meals to those who remained behind in hopes of making a difference.

"The people of Southeast Missouri were just wonderful," Kristi Thurman said later. Thurman is director of emergency services at the Red Cross office in Cape Girardeau. "There was so much generosity. The people just couldn't get the shirts off their backs fast enough."

Private donations continue to accrue across the country, topping $2.7 billion in the United States.

Three local men die in war on terror

"War reached across the globe," the newspaper story read that day, taking a Jackson soldier's life days after he visited his new son. Sgt. Robert Davis, 23, died in Afghanistan on Aug. 19, when a roadside bomb exploded near his armored vehicle. Davis had just visited his wife, Amanda, and seen his newborn son just days before in a brief visit home.

Two other local soldiers died in the war on terror in 2005: Less than a week after Davis' death, Army Spc. Blake Hall, 23, of East Prairie, Mo., died an attack near Baylough, Afghanistan. In June, Sgt. Brian Romines, 20, of Simpson, Ill., was killed in Iraq when his Humvee was struck by a roadside bomb.

Davis' wife, Mandy, said Memorial Day is no longer just another day to her.

"It was that way for us, until Bob joined the military," she said. "But people need to take a minute to realize that they can live the way they do because of our soldiers."

Heat causes deaths, scorches crops

The summer was a scorcher, causing problems on several levels.

In July, a mother and her adult son were found dead in their Cape Girardeau home that had no air conditioning. Glenda Rogers, who was in her 80s, and her son Clarence "Roger" Rogers, 63, died from the heat. They were found in their home, apparently after being dead for several days. Later that month, Brian F. Lincare, 43, became the third heat fatality after he was found dead in his mobile home.

The farming season got off to a bad start, too, with only 3.06 inches of rain in May, which was less than half the normal amount. In June, some parts of Southeast Missouri got less than an inch. The high temperatures didn't help, which all meant less than stellar years for crops like soybeans, corn and wheat. Rain came later in the season, but at best one farmer called this a "mixed blessing."

Taum Sauk levee breaks

Earlier this month, AmerenUE's Taum Sauk Hydroelectric Plant near Lesterville, Mo., suffered a levee break, unleashing a 5-million-ton torrent of water that washed away the home of a sleeping park superintendent and seriously injuring his children.

The break brought national media attention to the small, Southeast Missouri community. Questions remain about the long-term impact to the environment and nearby lakes and streams.

But there was some good news: Earlier this week, the family of Johnson's Shut-Ins State Park Jerry Toops were all out of the hospital and reportedly doing fine. Tanner Toops, just 5 years old and the most critically injured of three children caught in the deluge, was released.

The family went home to a furnished house with Christmas gifts, all which were donated.

Three Rivers/SEMO dispute

In December, Circuit Judge William Seay refused to dismiss a lawsuit by Three Rivers Community College against Southeast Missouri State University over operation of Bootheel education centers.

That capped off a year of dissent between the two education institutions, littered with litigation, strife and strong disagreements.

Southeast and Three Rivers in Poplar Bluff used to run regional sites together. But in March, Three Rivers filed a lawsuit alleging that Southeast committed a breach of contract when it decided to eliminate community college classes at higher education centers in Kennett, Sikeston and Malden starting last summer.

High fuel prices

Gasoline topped $3 a gallon in Missouri -- and in parts of Southeast Missouri -- in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, though prices have since lowered to around $2. It sparked people to drive off from pumps without paying and caused others to grouse incessantly.

Southeast Missouri residents headed into the winter season worried about the soaring cost of home heating.

Scott City railroad accident

On Oct. 30, 7-year-old Mikala Morrow had her arm severed while she was trying to crawl under a Union Pacific train in Scott City. She and her mother, Glenda Ross, and Ross' boyfriend crawled under a southbound train that had stopped to allow passage of a northbound train. The train began moving as the 7-year-old went under.

Glenda Ross is still in the court system, facing three charges of first-degree child endangerment. The case was recently moved to Butler County on a change of venue.

Jackson school bond issue passes ... finally

In August, the Jackson School District was nearly euphoric as they watched the $20 million bond issue finally get approved by voters on the third attempt. The money was earmarked to revamp the high school's aging campus. More expensive funding plans failed in November 2004 and April.

Boy dies after being removed from unsanitary home

A 4-year-old Perry County boy, Ethan Patrick Williams, died in August of an untreatable staph infection. Later, an investigation showed that his skin had turned a "modeling clay gray color" as he laid feverish on a couch stained with his own waste. His mother, Emily A. Altom, 25, and stepfather, Michael D. Altom, 25, each face charges of voluntary manslaughter and three counts of child endangerment. The case was moved to Phelps County for trial in 2006.

The Ethan Williams case also brought new attention to children living in unsanitary living conditions and several other cases were uncovered.

East Main Street interchange gets funded

It was an idea that was conceived in the 1980s. But finally in July, a deal to build the interchange connecting East Main Street in Jackson with Interstate 55 was announced. The project, because Jackson could certainly not afford it alone, finally got the support of five governmental entities -- the city of Jackson, the city of Cape Girardeau, Southeast Missouri State University's foundation, Cape Girardeau County and the Missouri Department of Transportation.

Construction could start in fall 2006.

Finally.

smoyers@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 137