RIVER CREST HIKED AFTER FALSE DATA REPORTED

Inaccurate data from electronic equipment that transmits Mississippi River stages by telephone from the Cape Girardeau river gauge has prompted the National Weather Service to raise the expected flood crest at Cape Girardeau.

The river is now expected to crest at Cape Girardeau on Wednesday at 47.7 feet. That's just two-tenths of a foot above the Sunday morning forecast of 47.5 feet, and one-half foot below the 48.2-foot-crest forecast that was issued late Sunday night. The river crested Monday in St. Louis.

The weather service said electronic equipment that transmits the voice river level by telephone was moved on Sunday to keep it above rising water in the gauge house. When the equipment was moved, it apparently affected the gauge reading transmitted by telephone, but not the gauge data that's transmitted by satellite to the Mississippi River Forecast Center in Slidell, La.

The Slidell forecasters decided to raise the predicted flood crest at Cape Girardeau to 48.2 feet late Sunday after receiving reports from the Cape Girardeau County Emergency Operations Center that gauge readings the EOC were getting by phone did not match those transmitted by satellite to the weather service.

After checking Monday morning, it was discovered the problem was with the telephone gauge equipment, and the data transmitted to the weather service by satellite was accurate.

"We're getting good data from the satellite," said Jack Burns, hydrologist with the weather service at St. Charles. The river gauge telephone system at the Cape gauge is no longer in operation, and should not be used as a source of data."

Dean Surface in the Cape Girardeau office of the Corps of Engineers said the office is taking regular readings of the river level manually with a gauge mounted in the gauge house until the telephone system can be put back into service.

On Monday, floodwaters in Cape Girardeau forced still more residents from their homes, as the sandbagging effort in the Red Star district continued.

The muddy water is within a few feet of the intersection of Main and Fourth streets, and is steadily approaching the rear wall of the Red Star Baptist Church Activity Center.

The Cape Girardeau Department of Public Works reopened a single lane of Bend Road between Olive and First streets. Workers are pumping the constant flow of water seeping through the sandbags skirting the street over the wall into the Sloan Creek water basin.

Sgt. Carl Kinnison of the Cape Girardeau Police Department said that public works officials want to keep the road open through the projected crest on Wednesday. Motorists are encouraged to use North Sprigg and Bertling streets to access the area.

Kinnison said that police officers spent much of the weekend chasing sightseers out of the barricaded areas north and south of the city, but no summonses were issued.

Most residents have passes into the area, police said. Those who do not can still get them at Fire Station No. 1, Independence and Sprigg, or from officers patrolling in the flood zones.

Shawnee Park was closed Monday because floodwater is standing in the park on South Minnesota Street.

The park will remain closed until further notice. Streets leading into the park, including Rust Avenue, South Minnesota, Wilson Road, and the parking lot of South West End Boulevard, were barricaded Monday morning near the park.

The Corps of Engineers is raising the levee just south of Commerce 1 feet to provide at least 3 feet of freeboard at the highest forecasted flood level. Freeboard is the measured distance from water level to the top of the levee.

Personnel with Corps are providing around-the-clock inspections of Corps levees in Cape Girardeau, Commerce and Dutchtown.

The levees and flood control devices, including Nash Road relief wells and pumping stations, are working as designed, said Bill Schult, a spokesman for the Corps. Seepwater is behind the levees in many areas, but Schult said this is normal during high water.