The Diversion Channel levee protecting Nash Road and much of the Bootheel could hold back a flood crest of over 55 feet on the Cape Girardeau gauge.

"It's doing exactly what it's supposed to be doing," said Larry Dowdy, executive vice president in charge of maintenance with the Little River Drainage District.

Water from the ditch is spilling onto farmland north of the channel, but Dowdy the system is designed to let floodwater back up into a basin area to the north of the Diversion Channel to keep pressure off the levee.

Water can spill into three basins strategically situated along the channel. Dowdy said the basin area has been designated as such since 1910.

"The levee is designed to pass a 500-year flood," Dowdy said. "We could probably hold 55 to 58 on the gauge here at Cape."

The river would not reach that stage; at 54 feet it would top Cape Girardeau's floodwall. Before reaching that stage, floodwater would top levees in Illinois.

Floodwater cannot approach businesses along Nash Road just south of the Diversion Channel.

Jerry Worley, office manager at Jerry Lipps Truck Service on Nash Road, said: "We don't have any concerns. There is not even seep water coming through.

"Even when they were calling for the high crest of 47 feet, we still had 10 feet on the levee. It seems to be in good shape. We're just coming to work everyday."

Jim Roark, production manager for Biokyowa Inc., 975 Nash Road, said the flood has shut down the company's port facility situated on the Mississippi River, but the main plant on Nash Road faces no danger from flooding.

Roark said he inspected the port facility with binoculars Sunday. "It's already come over our levee there," he said. "We had already secured that facility and have moved out everything we could."

The port facility has been shut down for a month and a half because of the swollen river.

"There is no water at the plant (on Nash Road," Roark said. He didn't anticipate any floodwater reaching the Nash Road area.

"A lot of people will have problems at Cape Girardeau before we have trouble here."

Dowdy said personnel with the drainage district and the Corps of Engineers are inspecting the levee daily. "We are patrolling it every day," Dowdy said.

"We look for sandboils that might be releasing murky water. That would be indicative that there may be material released under the levee," he said.

Sandboils occur when water pressure forces groundwater or floodwater through weak spots in the land. Water spews through the hole.

If the water is clear, it is likely groundwater; if the water is cloudy, it could be floodwater escaping through the levee, indicating a weak spot in the levee.

Dowdy said people are discouraged from walking on the levee or boating in the Diversion Channel waters. "Boats create wave action and that erodes the levee," he said. "It is private, too, not public. If people are out there, they are trespassing."

Dowdy explained that the levee begins at the Mississippi River and extends west about 17 miles to Allenville.

The levee picks up again west of Allenville and continues west to the foothills near Advance. Only the portion of the levee from the river to Allenville is affected by the flood.

If there were no Diversion Channel or levee, Dowdy said, "There would be no one below us. Everything would be a giant swamp."

The Diversion Channel and levee on the south bank of the ditch are part of a plan to reclaim swampland for agricultural purposes by the Little River Drainage District, formed in 1907. The Diversion Channel was designed to carry off Ozark streams and floodwater to the Mississippi River.

The levee prevents flooding the flat country to the south of the channel, including Cape Girardeau's industrial tract on Nash Road.

In addition, the reclamation project includes a series of ditches 849.6 miles long dredged through the country south of Diversion Channel to carry off rainwater and the discharge of streams.