MILLER CITY, ILL., BANKING ON NEW LEVEE

MILLER CITY, Ill. -- Aron Whitmore has a beautiful home and yard, but he remembers when they stood in 3 feet of Mississippi River water.

The first time was during the flood of 1993. The Len Small Levee, less than two miles from Whitmore's home, gave way easily. The water rushed his way, and his family spent three months living with a brother-in-law in nearby Olive Branch.

The second time was in April 1994, when the almost-rebuilt levee broke again. The water covered roads going to and from Whitmore's house, so he spent another month away from home.

Now, with the river hovering at flood stage, he is banking on a new and hopefully improved Len Small Levee to protect his home of 20 years. It must -- Miller City got out of the flood insurance program in 1986.

"If this levee doesn't hold, I'm gone," Whitmore said. "I can't take another $20,000 loss."

Joe Plemon, Alexander County engineer, watched as river floodwater washed away county roads in 1993. He joined other county officials and the levee district board to find a way to reconstruct the levee.

The Army Corps of Engineers couldn't help because it wasn't their levee to begin with. It was the Len Small Levee District's. So the Illinois Soil Conservation Service stepped in, made changes in the structure's original design and hired a contractor.

Plemon said work stopped in fall 1993 because nobody could decide if the Soil Conservation Service should be working on a levee project. A debate raged between the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the Corps of Engineers and the U.S. Department of Agriculture over who should be doing what.

The levee district started calling their representatives in Washington to get the ball rolling again, and it did. FEMA and the Illinois Division of Water Resources began overseeing construction. The levee was nearly complete when it broke again in April 1994.

Plemon blamed a poor original design, and so did the federal and state agencies working on the project. This time they hired a consultant in Chicago to do soil testing and redesign the levee. He changed the levee's path and its construction.

Arlan Juhl, chief of engineering studies with the Division of Water Resources, said the first design included a rock dike and a sand levee behind it. That didn't work because of seepage.

The new design was more traditional. The contractors, Luhr Brothers of Columbia, Ill., filled in a large hole formed when the levee broke and then built the levee around it. They put a 3-foot clay layer on the river side of the levee to prevent seepage.

Work was completed in March.

Juhl wouldn't say whether Miller City residents could let down their guard now that Len Small Levee is finished.

"They have as good or better a levee system as before the 1993 flood," he said.

But the levee is built on Darold Billings' land, and he said he and his neighbors feel much safer these days. They anxiously watched construction over the months, and they still keep an eye on the river.

"The neighbors come over pretty regular and check it since the water has been rising," Billings said.