DUTCHTOWN NEEDS HELP IN FIGHT; WITH WATER RAPIDLY ADVANCING, SANDBAGGING NOW IS VITAL CHORE

DUTCHTOWN -- Amid swelt~ering summer heat Friday, Dutchtown residents and volunteers filled and stacked sandbags along a quarter-mile stretch of Highway 74 as they braced for approaching floodwaters, visible in the distance.

The small, Cape Girardeau County town is threatened by floodwaters from the nearby Diversion Channel, the result of massive flooding along the bloated Mississippi River.

Some Dutchtown residents were packing up belongings Friday, looking to move to higher ground. Floodwaters were also threatening the Allenville area.

The Mississippi River at Cape Girardeau stood at 41.7 feet Friday, 9.7 feet above flood stage, a Corps of Engineers spokesman said. The river is expected to crest at 47 feet on Friday, 15 feet above the 32-foot Cape Girardeau flood stage.

State, county and special road district trucks continued to haul loads of sand to Dutchtown Friday.

Highway 74 at Dutchtown was closed to traffic. Sandbagging began Thursday. "We had 40 tons of sand," said Bill Geiser of Dutchtown as he worked along the emerging levee of sandbags.

The sandbagging continued late into the night Thursday and Geiser estimated the work would continue all weekend. "We are going to be sandbagging until Tuesday," he predicted.

Geiser and others said they were are bracing for a possible crest of 50 feet at Cape Girardeau. At that level, there would be several feet of water on the roadway, he said.

Craig Carnell of Dutchtown said the sandbag levee might have to be built to a height of 5 feet.

Carnell has seen flooding before: he stacked sandbags at Dutchtown during the floods of 1979, 1983 and 1986. "You've got to get them in there good and tight so the water won't seep through," he said as he stacked sandbags on the hot pavement.

He said volunteers are desperately needed to help with the work.

In Cape Girardeau County, floodwaters have covered countless acres of farmland. "There is a whole lot of crop damage," said Gene Huckstep, Cape Girardeau County presiding commissioner, as he toured the Dutchtown area Friday.

Col. Ted Fox of the Corps of Engineers' Memphis District; Lloyd Smith, U.S. Rep. Bill Emerson's chief of staff; and New Madrid area resident R.D. James of the Mississippi River Commission viewed flooded areas in Scott and Cape Girardeau counties by helicopter Friday. They landed in Dutchtown to view the flood battle first hand.

They were greeted by Cape Girardeau County officials, state Sen. Peter Kinder of Cape Girardeau and Thomas Schulte, an aide to U.S. Sens. Christopher Bond and John Danforth.

Earlier in the day Fox and James also visited areas farther south in the Missouri Bootheel and around Cairo, Ill.

"Right now we've got a lot of damage to cropland," said Fox. "I guess the depressing thing is it is not going to get better; it is going to get worse."

He said the small Scott County rivertown of Commerce was experiencing flooding.

The levee system appears to be in good shape, Fox said, other than a private levee at Powers Island near Commerce that may be breached by the rampaging river.

"The levee system in Cape is holding well," said Smith, who will report on the flooding to Emerson. The congressman, he said, is expected to tour flooded areas of Southeast Missouri next week.

Robert Nelson, a geology professor at Illinois State University, has criticized the levee system, suggesting it causes worse flooding in other areas.

"As soon as man starts putting up a levee or dike, it causes a partial dam of the valley, which causes water to rise elsewhere," Nelson told The Associated Press.

That criticism doesn't sit well with Fox. "If we didn't have the levee system, we would be in a catastrophic position," he said.

"We have spent decades putting this together with a lot of smart people. Personally, we could do with more" levees, said Fox.

James, who is losing several hundred acres of crops in the Bootheel to floodwaters, said that overall the situation is better south of Cape Girardeau.

"The river gets wider and deeper and it can absorb the shock," he said.

Pete Starkey of Whitewater paid little attention to the visiting dignitaries. He was too busy working with several other men to sandbag the home of Steve Starkey, his son. The home sits between the emerging sandbag levee on Highway 74 and the floodwaters to the south.

Some 2,000 sandbags were being used to protect the home. "That's a bundle," he said.

Even in the face of the relentless floodwaters, Starkey said he wasn't worrying about the possibility of record flooding. "There isn't a thing you can do about it," he said.

Dutchtown resident Imogene Dumey and fellow family members and friends spent Friday hauling sandbags into place around her brick home. Like the Starkey home, it sits south of the temporary levee going up on Highway 74.

"If it gets to 48 feet like they say, it is going to take over my house, I'm afraid," said Dumey.

The sweltering weather didn't make the sandbagging any easier.

"Oh, it's miserable," she said.