A temporary levee designed to shore up a potential weak link in the Main Street Levee District is being constructed today.

C.A. "Andy" Juden Jr., president of the district, said, "We do not want to create any fears; this is strictly precautionary."

The levee is being built on North Main just north of the state license bureau office.

"This is the only place, if there was a failure in the north or south levee districts, that water could go from one district to the other," said Juden.

A sandbag levee was built at the same spot during flooding in 1973.

The levee will be constructed of crushed stone and covered with plastic.

The levee will be approximately 6 feet tall, 12 feet wide at the base and 3 feet wide at the top.

He said stone is just as effective as sandbags in holding back water. "It is a little less expensive," he said.

The temporary structure is being built to hold back a stage of 48 feet on the Mississippi River at Cape Girardeau.

"It may be overkill," Juden said. "We've never had this situation occur. We do not expect it to occur now.

"It's just a weak link in the chain if something happened like a failure in the pumping stations or an uncontrollable leak that might occur," he said. "We know that things can happen. What we are trying to do is cover all bases."

On Wednesday officials set up a generator to run the pumping station at Merriwether in case power goes out. The pumping station forces groundwater from the city out into the river during floods.

"It's all very, very precautionary," Juden said. "With the value of the property that would be affected we felt we should take every precaution possible."

He said the generator was in place in 1973 also. It was not used.

Juden said rumors about flooding and the floodwall are rampant. "I set a record at the paging company with 37 pages in one day. Half of them were rumors.

"We've done everything we can do regardless of what stage the river goes to," said Juden.