MEMORIES OF 1951 FLOOD: WITHOUT WALL, SPANISH ST. STORES WOULD BE FLOODED

During the flood of 1951, water reached the Spanish-Independence intersection in downtown Cape Girardeau. Boats were a common sight along Main and Water streets.

That was before the floodwall was built.

"You should see where the water would be now without a floodwall," said Bob Hershey. "It would be about 5 feet high in the old St. Avit's Building, on the southeast corner of the Spanish-Independence intersection, and more than 4 feet high on the building at the northwest corner of the intersection."

Hershey, of Perryville, works with Kiefner Construction Co. He is downtown this week to install eight sidewalk handicapped-access areas at Independence and Spanish and Independence and Main.

"We were talking with some of the downtown merchants about the water Tuesday and where it would be without a wall," said Hershey. "With the use of a transit, a surveying tool, I could show just where it would be."

Lining up the transit with the 1973 mark on the floodwall gives an accurate reading of where the water would be, said Hershey, who has been in the construction field for more than 20 years.

"Some people were really surprised with the reading," said Hershey. "We showed where the water would have been during the 1973 flood and where it would be at today's reading."

The revised forecast predicts a crest of 46.5 feet at Cape Girardeau July 21. At 3 p.m. Wednesday, the Mississippi River at Cape Girardeau stood at 45.01 feet.

Earlier crest forecasts had called for a 47-foot reading Friday.

The change is due to many levees that have broken, allowing the water to spread out over a wider area north of the area. The forecast could change, however, with any additional rain.

"A heavy rain would be scary," said Hershey. "The extra water has nowhere to go."

Before construction of the floodwall in 1964, light flooding was an almost annual springtime event, and heavy flooding was reported no less than eight times during a 24-year period from 1927 through 1951. During the heavy flooding, the river recorded stages ranging from 39.5 to 42.3 feet.

The 45-foot crest will be the second-highest river reading at Cape Girardeau since record-keeping started in 1844, when a July flood reached 42.5 feet. That was a mild reading, however, compared to what is still referred to as the "Great Flood of 1973," when the Mississippi River crested at 45.6.

During the 20-year history of the floodwall, the river has been over the 32-foot flood stage 19 times, including at least a dozen years in which the stage hit at least 38 feet, and seven years with 40-feet plus readings.