AREA GROUPS PROVIDE AID TO VICTIMS OF FLOODING

To aid area flood victims, the Venture store in Cape Girardeau has set up a collection box for needed items at its West Park Mall entrance.

Canned goods, cleaning products and bedding are among items requested by the Salvation Army.

"We still need volunteers," said Capt. Elmer Trapp of the Salvation Army. "We need food; we need drinks."

Persons interested in helping with a sandbagging effort at Dutchtown or in other ways should call the Salvation Army at 335-7000.

Trapp said his phone has been ringing off the hook with people wanting to help.

At this point, 150 to 200 volunteers a day have been helping, he said.

"There is such an organized effort out at Dutchtown. It's just overwhelming, the response," he said. Volunteers have come from as far away as Farmington and Hayti. A Civil Air Patrol unit from Springfield, Mo., has also assisted with battling the flood.

"We can also use donations and contributions. Once the water goes down and people move back into their homes, there is going to be the job of cleaning up," he said.

Trapp said many of those who have moved to higher ground, such as residents of Cape Girardeau's Red Star neighborhood, are waiting out the flood at friends' and relatives' homes.

"It floods so much here that people just move out. This is not the first time, so people have already prepared to move in with somebody else," he said.

But he said that there is still a need for help. "We need volunteers. We need food to feed the volunteers," he said.

Mary Burton, executive director of the area chapter of the American Red Cross, said the organization has five mobile vans out feeding victims and volunteers.

"We are needing drinks to take out to the people," she said, "because these people are working out in the hot sun and they are getting dehydrated very quickly."

The Red Cross is scheduled to move its shelter today from to First Baptist Church, 926 Broadway, in Cape Girardeau.

In Cape Girardeau Saturday, a woman who was trying to save her home suffered third-degree burns, Burton said.