Some Missouri residents still without power as rivers rise

ST. LOUIS -- As cleanup continued Tuesday from a weekend of storms, rivers around Missouri spilled over their banks, shutting down roads, overtopping levees and saturating tens of thousands of acres of farmland.

By Tuesday morning, about 10,000 customers of AmerenUE were still without power after the remnants of Hurricane Ike caused several inches of rain and wind gusts of up to 60 mph Saturday and Sunday.

Most of the outages were in Southeast Missouri. Power has been restored to more than 86,000 Ameren customers, mostly in the St. Louis area. Scattered outages were also reported in southwest Missouri.

Several rivers continued to rise toward crests -- some more than 15 feet above flood stage -- later this week. Flooding was occurring at several towns along the Missouri and Mississippi rivers, including St. Louis.

The high water forced the U.S. Coast Guard to close parts of the Missouri and Mississippi to recreational vessels.

Many smaller rivers were also flooding. The Meramec was expected to reach 18 feet above flood stage in Arnold on Thursday. The Moreau River at Jefferson City was already 15 feet above flood stage. The North River was well above flood stage at the northeast Missouri town of Palmyra.

Hundreds of roads were flooded around the state, including about 200 state roads and highways.

Four deaths have been blamed on the weather -- three in the St. Louis area, one in Columbia.

There have been near-misses, too.

In the Chesterfield Valley area of west St. Louis County, James Berg was bow hunting with friends on Monday when the surging Missouri River overtopped a small agricultural levee. As floodwaters poured toward them, the hunters fled. But Berg wasn't fast enough.

He eventually found a tree and scurried to the top, bugs, rodents and snakes crawling around him. Eventually, a rescue helicopter spotted him, directed a rescue boat his way, and he was taken to safety.

No homes or businesses were damaged after the levee was topped. Chesterfield's main levee, protecting about $1 billion in big-box stores, restaurants and offices -- was not considered endangered.

Cleanup was under way in the northeast Missouri town of Silex, where 76 homes, six businesses and two churches were damaged by winds and water.