Residents in the tiny Cape Girardeau County village of Allenville are packing up belongings and evacuating this morning as floodwaters threaten the town.

The county's emergency management agency, in conjunction with the Cape Girardeau County Commission and the sheriff's department, issued a voluntary evacuation order for this morning. Residents in Allenville and low-lying areas near the rain-swollen Diversion Channel are being advised to leave before flooding closes area roads.

"Right now, a lot of people are leaving," said Phil Thompson, a lifelong resident of the town of about 100 people. Water already has covered County Road 233, he said. County roads 238 and 241 are still open, but Thompson predicted both of those roads will be impassable by Wednesday.

Thompson said he plans to stay just as he has done during countless other floods that have threatened the town. Since 1973, Allenville has been hit by 12 floods, he said. During flooding in 1993 and again in 1995, roads were impassable for about six weeks and an old railroad trestle over the Diversion Channel was used to transport supplies into and out of the town.

But last year, the Jackson, Gordonville and Delta Railroad removed the tracks that had been in dangerous disrepair. As a result, Thompson said, that emergency access has been eliminated. "Now when the roads go under, access will be strictly by boat," he said.

Check back for more information about the flooding in Cape Girardeau County and elsewhere at semissourian.com.

Pertinent address:

Allenville, Mo.