TOWNS ALONG RIVER HOPE TO RIDE OUT CREST

STE. GENEVIEVE Residents of this town of 4,100 hoped to ride out a record Mississippi River crest of 49.5 feet overnight.

"We're just holding our breath and hoping our levees hold," said Sandy Koller, the city's planning and zoning administrator.

Koller was alone answering the phone at city hall Thursday night.

The crest will be only half a foot below some of the levees protecting the town, a foot and a half below others.

A few people have lost their homes in recent days as individual efforts to hold back the floodwater have failed, Koller said. "But our town levees have held."

Ste. Genevieve is into its fifth week of fighting the flood, at an estimated cost to the town of $16 million.

Koller said the townsfolk haven't had time to think about their predicament. "We're too busy being here."

Mayor William Anderson was hopeful "this may be the final battle of this catastrophe."

In Perryville, whether the levees will hold is touch and go as well.

"There is a tense situation," said Mark Winkler, Southeast Missouri area coordinator for the State Emergency Management Agency.

"The water's been on these levees ... since March or early April. The levees are becoming saturated."

Winkler says saturation is entering the equation in northern Perry County.

"You talk to the locals and they'll tell you you walk on the levees in Perry county and you hit mushy spots."

He said the inability to predict crests has caught flood relief workers off-guard.

"In several spots levee was only 48 feet. They've tried to bring it up to 50 in several spots."

The predicted crest across the river at Chester, Ill., is 49.5 feet today, dropping to 49.2 feet Saturday.

"Today, the current was getting swifter at the flood control gate on 51 and causing a leak there," Winkler said, "and water was coming between the actual levee and the plastic they put down."

He said water was coming over the top of the levee at another spot.

The river at Cape Girardeau is predicted to crest at a record 49.0 feet Saturday morning. It was at 47.4 feet at 6 p.m. Thursday.

The river is expected to rise to 48.4 feet today in anticipation of Saturday's crest.

Sunday's predicted river stage in Cape Girardeau is 48.8 feet.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.