MANY USED SANDBAGS ARE GOING INTO DITCHES

Cape Girardeau County Emergency Operations Center Director Brian Miller says more than one million sandbags were used around the county during the flood of 1993 - nearly half of them at Dutchtown.

But with the Mississippi River now barely above flood stage and the cleanup operation under way, what has happened to all those sandbags?

Many of them are being used to fill ditches, but for the most part city and county officials in the area are having no problems getting rid of the sandbags.

"The state highway department took everything off of the highway at Dutchtown and used them somewhere down south for fill," said Miller. "There were some bags around Allenville and at some individual homes, but we have not had any requests to remove them from anyone."

In addition, Miller said the county provided dumpsters for people to use in getting rid of flood-damaged items.

A sandbag levee along Hubble Creek is still in place, and there has been some talk about covering it with dirt and making a permanent levee. But so far, no decision has been made, Miller said.

In the city of Cape Girardeau, Public Works Director Doug Leslie said many of the bags were picked up by farmers to use in filling gullies. But most of them were taken to the city landfill for use as daily cover.

Most of the bags at Cape Girardeau were used in the Red Star area and in the Meadowbrook subdivision area.

Scott County Presiding Commissioner Durward Dover said most of the bags in his county were placed in the Commerce area. Some residents spread the sand on their yards; other bags were taken by farmers.

"We didn't have any difficulty at all getting rid of the bags that were filled," said Dover.

In Southern Illinois, sandbags were used for the same purposes, including those used to form a sandbag wall around many homes in Olive Branch.

"We held a cleanup campaign here and have removed all of the bags," said Louis Maze, an Alexander County commissioner who lives at Olive Branch. "We stockpiled most of the sand behind the highway department building here for use in filling in roads and other areas eroded by floodwater."

Many of the sandbags were taken by area residents to fill in yard holes and low places caused by the floods. Some of the sand was hauled to the north end of the Fayville Levee, where swirling water from the Mississippi River was eating into the levee.

Most cities and counties have stockpiled some sandbags to be used the next time a flood occurs, which could provide some immediate relief until other bags can be brought in.

"We still have a lot of empty sandbags and plastic on hand for the next one," said Miller. Cape County already had a large stockpile prior to this flood.

In the city of Cape, Leslie said there is a truckload in storage and several pallets of filled bags that could be used in the event of flash flooding.

"We have one semi-truckload warehoused so we have enough to get us started until shipments start arriving," said Leslie.

The city also has some sand that was not needed for the flood effort. It can be used this winter for ice control.