Recovery expected to take manyweeks
Some St. Louis residents return to their homes.
As the Mississippi River and its tributaries retreated Saturday fromhistoric winter levels that flooded towns, forced evacuations and killed two dozen people, residents in the St. Louis area were facing a massive cleanup and recovery effort that will likely last weeks.
“The healing process, the restoration process has begun,” said Chris Greenhagen, pastor of the Central Baptist Church in Eureka, one of the communities hit by flooding along the Meramec River earlier this week.
The flood, fueled by more than 10 inches of rain over a three-day period that began last weekend, is blamed for 24 deaths.
Water from the Mississippi, Meramec and Missouri rivers largely began receding Friday in the St. Louis area. Two major highways — Interstates 44 and 55— reopened south of St. Louis on Friday, and some evacuees were also allowed then to return home.
On Saturday, while residents took stock of the ruin, Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon said he has asked for a federal emergency declaration to help speed cleanup of the flood debris in the St. Louis area. If the federal emergency declaration is approved, the Missouri National Guardwould manage the debris cleanup program at the state level and coordinate with federal and local governments.
Nixon and Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner also toured flood-ravaged areas Saturday as near-record crest predictions of the Mississippi River and levee breaks threatened more homes.
Noelle Pace said she packed up electronics, some furniture and her 4year-old son’s clothing and toys and left Pacific on Monday, the day after she received a nonmandatory notice to evacuate. She felt lucky to find the damage isolated to her crawl space when she returned for the first time Thursday.
“Everybody around us had catastrophic damage,” Pace said. She and her son have asthma, and she said she might not be able to move back for weeks while her landlord replaces soaked insulation.
“It doesn’t feel real yet,” she said.
While the worst of the dangerous, deadly winter flood was over in the St. Louis area, farther south, things were getting worse. Two more levees succumbed Friday, bringing to at least 11 the number of levee failures.
In the far southwestern tip of Illinois, the 500 or so people living behind the Len Small levee, which protects the hamlets of Olive Branch, Hodges Park, Unity and ru- ral homes, were urged to move to higher ground after the Mississippi began pouring over the levee.
Alexander County Board chairman Chalen Tatum said sandbagging efforts were cut off because it was too dangerous for the volunteers. Far more water is to come before the Sunday crest.
“It’s going to get ugly,” he said.
Illinois Emergency Management Agency spokeswoman Patti Thompson said the state’s flooding death toll increased to nine. Fifteen have died in Missouri.
On Saturday, Illinois’ governor resumed his tour of flood-damaged areas for the second day, with planned stops in Cairo and Olive Branch. A day earlier he activated IllinoisNational Guard soldiers to help with flood recovery efforts as needed. In Missouri, Nixon stopped in Eureka and Cape Girardeau.
Elsewhere, the Illinois River continued to rise Saturday and could near historic crests Tuesday or Wednesday, according to Thomas Spriggs, meteorologist with the National Weather Service in St. Louis.