FLOODING FORCES AREA RESIDENTS OFF HIGHWAY

The flood has turned Dianna Barnes' 10-minute commute to work into a 35-minute ordeal over a narrow, winding, hilly county road whose blind corners make driving hazardous.

Barnes lives in the Rolling Hills Subdivision along Highway 177 just north of the Cape Girardeau city limits.

She and others along the state route have had to drive miles out of their way to get to jobs in Cape Girardeau because flooding has closed a short stretch of the road just north of the city limits.

Floodwaters also have restricted travel on a stretch of Highway 177 just south of Rolling Hills Subdivision, where gravel has been brought in to keep one lane open.

Area residents who live just two miles north of the city limits are having to travel a circuitous 12-mile detour to town.

The flooding has added to the drive time for Procter & Gamble employees who normally travel the highway to get to the plant. School buses had to use other routes to transport children to and from the Nell Holcomb School on Highway 177 before the school year ended last Friday.

The flooding has also meant detours for fire trucks and ambulances, making for longer response times.

Area residents are frustrated the state highway department hasn't raised the roadway to avoid future flood closings, particularly when the road was closed for about two months during the 1993 flood.

But Cape Girardeau lawyer John Oliver Jr., who serves on the Highways and Transportation Commission, said elevating the roadway depends on securing federal disaster money.

There isn't any state money available at this point to do such a project.

"The only reasonable hope of raising that road in the next two or three years is emergency relief funds," Oliver said adding that it could cost $3 million to $4 million to elevate just a short stretch of state highway, and Highway 177 isn't the only state highway covered with water.

Any such project also would have to deal with environmental regulations, Oliver said.

Flooding along Highway 177 is caused by high water on the Mississippi River, which backs up into creeks.

"We are just aggravated mostly because it happens year after year," Barnes said, noting that the highway has been closed twice in the past three years.

Highway 177 has been closed to traffic just north of Cape Girardeau for about 1 1/2 weeks. Floodwaters cover the road when the Mississippi River reaches 41 feet at Cape Girardeau.

Leta Bahn, who lives just south of Nell Holcomb School, said the closed section of Highway 177 covers less than a mile, while the section that has been reduced to one lane amounts to no more than four-car lengths.

She and other residents wonder why the state hasn't raised the roadway as has been done in recent years on Route 3 and 146 across the river in Illinois.

But Oliver said Highway 177 doesn't flood all the time and was built to be above the 100-year flood level.

But that is little consolation to area residents who must travel out of their way to get to work or home.

"It seems to me that they ought to do something," Bahn said. "It is not like they have to cut through a mountain."

The major detour these days is along county roads 634 and 635.

County Road 635 is a maze of a road where 35 mph is about the top speed. Bahn said it is difficult to even go the speed limit and stay on the road.

Barnes said the county roads weren't designed to handle the traffic. "They weren't meant to be a highway."

It is a big problem for Jim Hanks, the chief of the East County Fire Protection District. His fire trucks and volunteer firefighters normally rely on Highway 177 to respond to fire and rescue calls.

The flooding has forced the rural fire department to use less-adequate county roads.

"That slows response time down considerably, not only for us, but for the ambulance service," Hanks said.

"Our main concern is the safety of the people," he said.