UPRIVER, THE MISSISSIPPI KEEPS RISING

EAST DUBUQUE, Ill. -- Homeowners along the upper Mississippi River kept watch on levees Saturday and kept pumps humming against the slowly rising water after light, scattered rain moved across the region during the night.

Some of the river's excess spilled over a rural levee onto farm land, momentarily easing the threat to a couple of towns.

Heavy wind swept through the area along with the rain, sending waves slapping against the siding of houses surrounded by water and washing plastic bottles and other trash against a levee at East Dubuque, where Ray Leppert, 34, was checking on homes belonging to friends.

"There's a few people who have spoken of moving on, but very few that I've heard," Leppert said. "It's home."

The water had risen to 25.95 feet Saturday at East Dubuque, surpassing the crest during the 1993 floods. The record is 26.81 feet, set in 1965.

Upriver at Prairie du Chien, Wis., the Mississippi had inched up to 23.75 feet, nearly 8 feet above flood stage and headed toward a forecast crest of 23.9. The rain that fell during the night was already factored into the river's predicted peak and the National Weather Service canceled a flash flood watch for the area.

Floodwaters aren't expected to reach crisis stages in Cape Girardeau.

Illinois Gov. George Ryan toured flooded areas by helicopter on Saturday and said his state would resume efforts to buy out homes in flood-prone areas. He said the state bought about 3,000 homes after the 1993 flooding that devastated parts of the Mississippi Valley.

Steve High, a member of the East Dubuque City Council, said he was ready to sell.

"This is the second or third 100-year flood in the last eight years," he said. "I'm ready to leave. If they offer me the money it's worth, I'm gone."

Different reactions

Compared to some other communities, residents of Dubuque, Iowa, took the high water in stride Saturday, walking along the city's flood wall and taking photographs. The city's flood wall can withstand the river up to 33 feet.

"We're in pretty good shape compared to a lot of places," said John Klostermann, Dubuque's street and sewer supervisor. "It's kind of uneventful that's the way we like it."

Downstream on the Illinois shore, however, there was a brief scare Saturday when the river began dropping at Keithsburg and New Boston, indicating water was draining through a break in a levee somewhere upstream.

Local officials scrambled to find the breach and found that water had poured over a levee on the Iowa side near Lake Odessa, threatening only farmland, said Rick Arkell of the National Weather Service.

"They knew the levee was going to fail and decided to let it over-top instead of trying to build it up," he said. "It's certainly better than washing out a town somewhere."

The river soon resumed its rise down stream, Arkell said. "It probably will take a little bit off the crest down there," he said, although the difference would be very small.

East Dubuque resident Virginia Hoftender counted her blessings even though her home was surrounded by water.

"It hasn't been too bad for us, but it hurts when you see your neighbor next door lose everything," said Hoftender, who has lived in her house since 1957.

The price you pay'

Water was 9 feet deep in Scott Cosley's basement and it was just about up to the living area.

"Nine inches to go and I'm really sweating it," Cosley said. "If you want to live by the river, this is the price you pay. It doesn't come every year but when it does, it really does."

The river is expected to crest Tuesday at Davenport, Iowa, the largest city along the upper Mississippi that has no flood control system.

When the first flood forecasts were issued, townspeople began building temporary levees to keep water out of the riverfront business district, but the city has resisted building permanent flood structures that would wall off the city from the river.

Open views of the river help Davenport attract $100 million in tourism annually, said Ron Fournier, a spokesman for the Army Corps of Engineers.