OpinionSeptember 9, 2002

Dutchtown, Mo., in May was a very different place than Dutchtown today. It was well worth a trip to the town of 250 residents to see their flood-fighting efforts back then. Dutchtown sits perilously close to the Diversion Channel, which diverts the flow of several streams from flat cropland south of Cape Girardeau to the Mississippi River...

Dutchtown, Mo., in May was a very different place than Dutchtown today.

It was well worth a trip to the town of 250 residents to see their flood-fighting efforts back then.

Dutchtown sits perilously close to the Diversion Channel, which diverts the flow of several streams from flat cropland south of Cape Girardeau to the Mississippi River.

When the river rises, the channel backs up and Dutchtown gets flooded. It's an unavoidable eventuality that causes residents to slip into battle mode and start fighting to save their town.

They do that by filling and stacking sandbags on Highway 74. They got help from Teen Challenge, the Army Corps of Engineers and others this year, but it's the residents who get together and schedule shifts for checking their makeshift levee, making sure there are no leaks and their homes and belongings are protected.

But just because they're really good at it doesn't mean they like to do it.

It's a major inconvenience. A few families are left on the south side of Highway 74, which means they don't get the temporary levee's benefits. Instead, they stacked sandbags around their homes in May and stayed put, using paddle-propelled john boats to get to their cars parked on Highway 25 and go to Chaffee, Mo., for groceries.

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Dutchtown residents have been asking for a levee for years. But the government helps those who help themselves.

To that end, the town held bake sales and "fill the boot" campaigns at its main intersection and raised part of $25,000 for a levee. The town incorporated and started collecting a 1-cent sales tax.

And finally, last week, Dutchtown residents learned they'd be getting their reward, with one of the main objectives being keeping the intersection of highways 74 and 25 open when spring flooding occurs. When the intersection is closed, Stoddard Countians are forced to take the long way -- the very long way -- around to Cape Girardeau.

This past spring, the flooding also coincided with construction on the Diversion Channel bridge on Interstate 55, so motorists couldn't use highways 74 and 25 as alternate routes. Instead, they backed up for miles -- and hours -- on the interstate in a traffic jam the likes of which Cape Girardeau County hadn't ever seen.

That caught the attention of the Corps of Engineers.

A community development block grant of $297,164 plus $600,000 from the Corps of Engineers, Dutchtown's pot of money and in-kind donations of gravel and excavating will pay for a $923,000 levee to protect the town. More specifically, it will protect that highway intersection.

The levee will be two miles long and 12 feet high, connecting with Highway 74 to the east and the Hubble Creek Levee to the west.

If only the weather will cooperate until December 2004, when the project is expected be done.

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