Floods' ravages mount in Midwest

FOLEY, Mo. — John Young thought he made the real estate deal of his life in 1993 when he bought a flood-damaged, three-bedroom house in this Mississippi River town for just $3,000. Like his neighbors, Young found the bargain because he figured the river would not in hundreds of years ever flood so badly again.

But as Young watched the raging river march into his backyard Friday, he couldn't quite believe how his luck had changed.

"They told us in 1993 that was a 500-year flood," Young said, unable to contain his bitterness. "Well, it's only 15 years later, and here we are again."

Flooding continued to rip apart small towns along the Mississippi River Friday. As urban areas were spared — the flood highs in St. Louis were some 10 feet below expected near-record levels — little communities took a bashing.

Some were protected by levees that were not designed to hold back such high waters and couldn't resist the river. Others had no protection at all and saw the Mississippi surge into their properties.

Here in Lincoln County, where three levees were overrun Thursday and one Friday, others were barely holding, with officials predicting three more levees could falter by the weekend. Some 300 people were evacuated in this river region north of St. Louis as residents watched floodwaters surge higher and higher.

"We've got water topping the levees all up and down [the county]," said Kelly Hardcastle, the county's director of emergency management. "It looks like a waterfall."

Overnight rains made the misery worse and more storms were expected this weekend. But they are not expected to add a significant amount of water to the already swollen river.

Young and his neighbors in Lincoln County have joined an unhappy fraternity of flood victims who hate the way their lives are repeating themselves these days.

With at least 25 levees breaking in recent days along either side of the river in Illinois, Iowa and Missouri, the flood of 2008 continues to threaten further havoc despite government forecasts that show the risk of more flooding is dropping.

Missouri Gov. Matt Blunt said Friday that the high number of levee breaches shows that the federal government should soon survey the nation's levees to find out what can be done to provide better flood protection. He said the biggest problem seems to be with dirt levees built privately and by communities to protect farmland.

"At some point, people are going to get tired of this, and we need a coordinated review of the entire river shed," Blunt said as he toured a sandbagging operation in Winfield. "It would minimize events like this."