RIVER AGAIN ON THE RISE; RIUVERBOATS TO STOP HERE IF POSSIBLE

High water may shorten the distance for the Great Steamboat Race from New Orleans to St. Louis, but plans for a four-hour stop by the Mississippi Queen and Delta Queen steamboats at Cape Girardeau are still on.

"We discussed scuttling plans for the boats to stop at Cape Girardeau," Lucette Brehm, spokeswoman for the Delta Queen Steamboat Co. in New Orleans, said Monday, "but if the Broadway floodgate is open at Cape Girardeau, the two `Queens' will make their scheduled stop."

The steamboats will dock at Cape from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday as a part of the annual reenactment of the Great Steamboat Race between the Natchez and the Robert E. Lee. The race began at New Orleans June 24.

"We're hoping for cooperation by the weatherman," said Cathy Crites, a staff member with the Cape Girardeau Convention & Visitors Bureau.

"We have made arrangements for three tour buses and some members of the Cape Capaha Antique Car Club to transport visitors to the River Heritage Museum, Southeast Missouri State University Museum and the Glenn House."

A jazz band will be on hand at the Broadway gate to welcome visitors to Cape Girardeau.

As the schedule stands now, the Mississippi Queen will stop at Cape Girardeau again July 6, from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.

Meanwhile, the high water has forced the Delta Queen Steamboat Company to change the destination point for the Great Steamboat Race from New Orleans to St. Louis.

The boats were scheduled to complete the race on Sunday morning on the final leg of the Great Steamboat Race to the foot of the Gateway Arch. But the latest in a series of flood crests on the Mississippi River forced the company to cancel those plans. "We can't get under the J.B. Bridge (near St. Louis)" said Terry Westerfield of the Delta Queen public relations department.

Westerfield said the company has contacted privately-owned docking facilities south of the bridge. "We'd like to get close enough to St. Louis to bus our passengers into the city for the Veiled Prophet celebration. We're keeping close contact with the Corps of Engineers along the route."

Another option, said Westerfield, is to stop the race at Ste. Genevieve instead of completing the race to St. Louis on Sunday.

Brehm said the closure over the weekend of 500 miles of the Upper Mississippi River between St. Louis and St. Paul, Minn., due to high water also has forced the company to cancel a planned cruise by the Mississippi Queen from St. Louis to St. Paul.

Instead, the Mississippi Queen will leave Ste. Genevieve after the Fourth for a cruise to Chattanooga, Tenn., and a return cruise to Ste. Genevieve, Brehm said. After leaving Ste. Genevieve, the Delta Queen will cruise to Nashville, Tenn., and make other cruises on the Ohio River.

This is the second time this year the Mississippi Queen has had to stop at Ste. Genevieve because of high water on the river. In late April, the steamboat stopped at the Ste. Genevieve marina because it could not pass safely under one of the St. Louis bridges. Passengers were bused to St. Louis and back to St. Genevieve for boarding.

The Mississippi River is forecast to crest at Cape Girardeau on Saturday at 35.5 feet, 3 feet above flood stage. But if heavy rains continue to fall over the Upper Mississippi River watershed north of St. Louis this week, that crest may be revised upwards later in the week, the weather service warned.

A spokesman for the Main Street Levee District said the Themis Street floodgate probably will be closed today or Wednesday in anticipation of the next flood crest.

The latest round of flooding on the river has been caused by a slow moving frontal system that over the past 6-10 days has dumped heavy rain on Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, Illinois and northern Missouri.