Southern Mo., will get heaviest rainfall

ST. LOUIS (AP) -- State emergency management was on alert to respond to any flooding resulting from up to 6 inches of rain forecast for parts of southern Missouri through Friday morning.

The State Emergency Management Agency was prepared to "ramp back up" if counties report a need for sandbags, water rescues or other assistance, spokeswoman Susie Stonner said.

The National Weather Service said southern Missouri would get a minimum of 2 to 4 inches of rain with the Bootheel in the far southeast portion of the state getting 5 to 6 inches. The rain should end by noon Friday and then see dry weather -- at least for a few days, meteorologist Michael Scotten in Memphis said.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers was holding back water in flood-control lakes and dams along river systems in southern Missouri and northern Arkansas, and gradually releasing as the lakes get too full.

"We're managing releases of water to minimize flood damage to the best of our ability," said Lt. Col. Don Balch.

The lakes include Clearwater, Beaver, Table Rock, Bullshoals and Norfork.

Southwest Missouri could see flash flooding, including water covering low-lying roads, said weather service hydrologist Jim Taggart of the Springfield office.

The threat is mainly from quick-lived flash floods rather than wide areas being inundated in the steep terrain of the Ozarks. The town of Ozark, south of Springfield, could see another rise in the Finley River, which washed over a city park and a long-establised restaurant last month.

South-central counties from Taney in the west to Shannon and Orgeon counties in the east face the greatest danger of flash floods as rain up to 3 inches or more could fall over wide areas that are already saturated.

"They can't take much more. Even half an inch of rain will start flash flooding in some low areas," Taggart said.

A flash flood watch remains in effect through Friday morning for most of southwest Missouri, with the heaviest rain expected later Thursday afternoon and evening.

In eastern Missouri, the rain wasn't expected to add much to the minor flooding already under way on the lower Meramec River. The weather service was forecasting 1 to 2 inches of rain for the St. Louis area and the Meramec River basin to the south and southwest.

At Valley Park, the Meramec was expected to crest Thursday at 21.5 feet, and fall below the 16 foot flood stage by Monday.

At Pacific, where 200 homes and businesses were flood-damaged two weeks ago, the river was expected to crest at 17.6 feet Thursday night, and fall below flood stage Sunday.

Across the Mississippi River in tiny Grafton, Ill., residents on Thursday nervously kept vigil on a hillside where rains were blamed for a mudslide two days earlier that forced a family from their home, closed down a section of a river road and threatened to knock out much of the tourist town's power.

A patch of ground about the size of a small office gave way Wednesday night, sliding about 20 feet before being held back by a tree line on a hill that's also home to electrical transmission lines and, at the very top, a bed-and-breakfast inn.

But with a new round of rain soaking the region Thursday and softening the mucky ground even more, Mayor Richard Mosby and others in the town about 30 miles north of St. Louis are uneasy.

"Everybody's just sitting here waiting, wondering if it's done sliding. Nobody seems to know," he said from a town that has dealt with flooding over the years but never a wall of mud. "This is something totally new. It's in an area that's never moved before.

"This is something you can't predict."

As a precaution, Mosby ordered detours around a stretch of Illinois Route 100 -- best known around the region as the Great River Road -- through town out of concern that vibrations from big trucks might cause additional slides.

"Businesses are open," Mosby said. "If someone wants to come to town to eat or something, we'll figure out a way to get them there."

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AP correspondents Marcus Kabel in Springfield and Jim Suhr in southern Illinois contributed to this report.