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Mississippi Threatens To Top Nearly 30 Levees

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By EILEEN SULLIVAN

The Associated Press

Published: June 17, 2008

WASHINGTON - The federal government predicts that 27 levees could potentially overflow along the Mississippi River if the weather forecast is on the mark and a massive sandbagging effort fails to raise the level of the levees, according to a map obtained Monday by The Associated Press.

Officials are placing millions of sandbags on top of the levees along the river in Illinois, Iowa and Missouri to prevent overflowing. There is no way to predict whether these levees will break, said Ron Fournier, a spokesman with the Army Corps of Engineers in Iowa. "That's a crystal ball that nobody has," he said.

The Army Corps of Engineers looks at the latest weather forecasts and creates "battle maps" for levee engineers that show how many levees could overflow without what Fournier calls a "big flood fight effort." The flood fight entails placing millions of sandbags on top of the levees to make them higher.

The information, which the Army Corps shares regularly with state and local officials, changes constantly. Bret Vorhees, a spokesman for the Iowa Emergency Management and Homeland Security agency, said his office relies on these updates. "The weather can be unpredictable. It's a bit of an art with a science with their projections," he said.

As of Monday evening, 27 levees had a potential of overflowing - 20 of those a "high potential" - according to the Army Corps. Six levees have overflowed in the past three days: two in Iowa and four in Missouri.

Towns Put Hope In Sandbags

Town by town, house by house and inch by inch, residents along the mighty Mississippi fought to contain swelling currents that were expected to reach all-time highs and test the mettle of people long intertwined with the fortunes of the river.

The National Weather Service predicted the river in places will rise as early as today to levels surpassing previous catastrophic floods. Up and down the river Monday, from Davenport, Iowa, to Hannibal, Mo., frantic sandbagging efforts seemed futile as water barreled into the Mississippi from swollen nearby rivers in Iowa, where flooding has reached unprecedented levels.

In some areas, there were defiant fights to keep the river at bay. In others, there was simply surrender.

"I think this is the mighty Mississippi telling us, 'Hey, I'm in charge,'" said Debbie Boyle, a U.S. Postal Service maintenance worker who wore blue shorts, a tank top and black fishing boots as she helped ferry supplies in Hannibal.

On the Illinois side of the Mississippi, just across from Keokuk, Iowa, a 2,500-foot stretch of road was a key strategic point in the battle against swollen river waters that were set to crest at a near-record 28 feet, perhaps on Wednesday.

Using thousands of dump truck loads of gravel, state workers and private contractors are scrambling to raise the road six feet above its asphalt bed. Tenuous and temporary as it is, the roadway is a necessary lifeline connecting Iowa and Illinois, especially as a bridge downriver at Quincy, Ill., closed Monday.

"We're talking about getting this above 28 feet, and staying above it," said Lou Haasis, operations engineer from the Illinois Department of Transportation, who was directing the effort.

Rare Intensity Of Flood Adds Stress

In most instances, the river overflowing the levees is just problematic, much like when you fill your bathtub with too much water, says Larry Roth, the deputy executive director of the American Society of Civil Engineers.

But because the current flooding is so rare - many are calling it a one-in-500-years flood - the entire levee system will be stressed, he said.

Still, Roth said, if the federal government and local officials are able to get the sandbags in place and identify potential weak areas along the levees, "then there's maybe a very good chance to provide flood protection for the people that live along the river."

Some 250 miles of the Mississippi River have been closed. That doesn't officially shut down the river, said U.S. Geological Survey national flood specialist Bob Holmes, but it effectively shuts down barge traffic.

The flooding is expected to raise food and fuel prices.

Floodwaters have spread across the corn belt, preventing farmers from planting soybeans and damaging a corn crop just starting to emerge from the ground. Analysts now estimate that flooded corn states might produce 15 percent less of the grain than last year. Some say the shortfall will be larger.

That pushed corn prices to near $8 a bushel Monday and sparked fears of another spike in food inflation, already increasing at its fastest pace in 18 years.

"This is a pretty big train wreck developing," said Steve Meyer of Paragon Economics in Adel, Iowa.

Information from the Chicago Tribune and The Washington Post was used in this report.

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