Mo. officials to begin assessing flood damage

PACIFIC, Mo. (AP) — Flood waters on Monday were receding along the Meramec River and in many other areas of hard-hit Missouri, and state and federal emergency management officials were beginning the task of assessing damage in 70 counties.

Five Missourians died due to flooding that resulted from up to a foot of rain that fell early last week. Thousands were forced out of their homes due to flash flooding and quickly rising rivers.

Starting this week, teams from the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Missouri State Emergency Management Agency will view damage in each of the flooded counties to determine the economic impact, SEMA officials said.

While flood waters were receding in most places, there were still areas of concern, especially in southeast Missouri. The Mississippi River was expected to reach 41.5 feet at Cape Girardeau on Monday — nearly 10 feet above flood stage. New Madrid expects a crest nearly 8 feet above flood stage on Wednesday, and the Mississippi at Caruthersville should reach 9 feet above flood stage on Friday.

If the Mississippi reaches 42 feet at Cape Girardeau, it would flood 100,000 acres of land and force evacuations of homes, National Weather Service meteorologist Robin Smith said.

"At Cape Girardeau, we're getting concerned because it's getting close to large impacts," Smith said.

Police in Cape Girardeau have reported no evacuations. The city has a 54-foot flood wall that protects downtown.

The Mississippi at Cairo, Ill., where the Mississippi and Ohio rivers merge, was expected to crest at 54 feet Tuesday morning, 14 feet above flood stage.

The Meramec Riverhas been especially troublesome, but the worst appeared over. In Pacific, residents spent a chilly Easter Sunday assessing flood damage to more than 200 homes and businesses, while wishing for a levee like one that saved Valley Park, a neighboring town in the Meramec River basin, over the weekend.

Pacific Mayor Herbert Adams said the state and federal governments are obligated to protect residents from floodwaters in towns like his along the Meramec River in eastern Missouri. They must help not just with cleaning up, he says, but by building a levee to prevent future flooding.

Pacific, a town of 7,000 people 35 miles southwest of St. Louis, has been hit by three major floods in 26 years — in 1982, 1994 and last week — and lesser ones in between.

"There's going to be another flood sometime between now and later," Adams said. "I want them to get their experts together and give us a start date."

Over the weekend, Pacific building inspectors assessed homes and businesses that had been invaded by water and slapped color-coded notices on doors — green for OK, and bright yellow for uninhabitable.

City Collector Debbie Kelley's home is about three miles from the Meramec River but got as much as 8 inches of water. Her house sits in a 100-year-flood plain — meaning that, statistically, it should flood once a century. She never could have guessed it would flood twice in 14 years.

"Right now, all we can do is sit and wait for FEMA," she said. "The Meramec is not afraid of no one."