WEARY FLOOD WARRIORS READY FOR RIVER'S CREST TONIGHT

As the Mississippi River in Cape Girardeau inched closer Saturday to an expected crest tonight of nearly 49 feet, weary flood warriors continued to wage battle against the water's assault.

At 6 p.m. Saturday, the river at Cape Girardeau stood at 47.9 feet.

Workers strengthened a sandbag levee around Red Star Baptist Church in north Cape Girardeau, and in the southwest part of town, rising waters began to threaten more homes in the Meadowbrook area along South Kingshighway.

"Just a few inches means a whole lot to these people," said Mark Hasheider, Cape Girardeau's emergency operations coordinator.

Hasheider said volunteers are needed to help sandbag in the Red Star area.

People still need to realize that help is needed in some places," he said. "Some times, it's just a matter of taking names so we can call people when there's a need."

Hasheider said those within the river's reach are battling with the hope that the struggle is nearly over.

"At this stage a lot of homes are fighting these little battles to keep the water out," he said. "But what we're seeing is pumps that have been going for days to keep the seep water out are starting to fail.

"Between the pumps wearing out and trying to maintain a 24-hour vigil day after day, it's starting to take its toll."

Across the river, between East Cape Girardeau, Ill. and Gale, Ill., the Coast Guard, Illinois National Guard, Corps of Engineers, and area volunteers Saturday worked to detain a sand boil on the levee.

With eight Coast Guard john boats, workers transported sandbags about a quarter mile through the seep water pond to where local volunteers, waist-deep in water, erected a levee. The idea was to pool the water with the sandbag wall in hopes of building sufficient "back pressure" to stop the seep.

Each boat carried about 60 sandbags per trip. That is, until one boat sank. Subsequently, the load sizes were reduced.

Bill Busch, area engineer for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, said the Corps continues to monitor area levees as the river nears its crest.

"Everything seems to be coming along pretty well with the river right at a crest," Busch said. He some of the levees are "leaking, but holding.

"The primary thing we're watching for is the sand boils," he added.

Sand boils occur when river water finds a crack in the base of a levee and begins to work through, sometimes carrying levee material with it. The crack enlarges until there's a hole in the levee.

"As long as seep water is clear, we're not that worried because it's an indication that it's not carrying levee materials," Busch explained. "But when it gets muddy, that's when we go in and have to do something."

In Perry County, officials kept a wary eye on the levee around the Bois Brule Bottoms "It's going to be nip and tuck here," said a tired Jack Lakenan, director of the Perryville-Perry County Emergency Management Agency.

"There's already some water behind the levee from an earlier break, but the water is 6 to 8 feet higher on the river side, now," said Lakenan. "Our basic concern is that with that much of a drop, a break would create a current and that could do a lot of damage to the area."

He said flowing water could undercut the already submerged approach to the Chester bridge and damage about 90 homes, a half-dozen small businesses and two major employers in the area - Gilster-Mary Lee Corp., a popcorn plant, and Sabreliner Corp., which repairs aircraft.

Lakenan said his agency had been seeking help to shore up the waterlogged levee north of Perryville for some time, but the Corps of Engineers had been concentrating their efforts further north at historic Ste. Genevieve. Sandbag levees there were holding Saturday. Officials said the river had apparently crested there and that the old colonial French town was now "just treading water."

The Corps was placing piles of rock onto the endangered Perryville County levee Saturday but there was no way to level the piles out because the levee was too soft to allow vehicle traffic.

As the danger of a failure increased, Lakenan said, the number of workers on the levee itself was decreased from 50 on Wednesday to 10 or 15 Saturday.

"We don't want to risk any more lives than is absolutely necessary," he said. "We have to set our priorities. We don't want to sacrifice lives for property. We've been extremely fortunate so far and we don't want to get anyone hurt now."

Hasheider said he eagerly awaits the passing of the river crest, when the water finally will begin to recede.

Bill Bryant of the National Weather Service in St. Louis said the Mississippi in Cape Girardeau is expected to crest late today at 48.5 to 49 feet, before dropping to 48.3 feet Monday.

"Based on what the river's doing further north, it should be receding at about a half a foot or less per day," he said.

Bryant said water levels further north now are low enough to enable officials to release water from some of the dams along the upper Mississippi and Missouri Rivers.

He said that if the weather cooperates and there isn't significant rainfall to the north, the river in Cape Girardeau could drop below its 32-foot flood stage within a month.

Busch said he expects the crest to linger for a day or two before moving downstream. He said area levees appear to be able to withstand the water.

"With the crest here, we feel like we've got a pretty good handle on it and can hold on to everything," he said.

As the flood of 1993 drags on the river has been above flood stage in Cape since the latter part of June the record crest is a relief to some, indicating the battle against the water is nearly over.

"It's been an incredible long battle," said Hasheider. "We're definitely looking for a downward trend.

"I never thought we'd see anything like this in Cape. I've been here since 1985 and I've seen the water go up a couple times where it hit that 40-foot mark, then it would back down," he said.

"But if you would have said way back in June that we'd be at 48 feet, I would have said, `No way.'"

(The Associated Press contributed to this story.)