Flood-weary Midwesterners watch raging rivers rise

FENTON, Mo. -- With more than a dozen people killed by floodwaters and rivers still rising, weary Midwesterners on Thursday weighed not just the prospect of a sodden cleanup but the likelihood their communities could be inundated again.

Families in some areas have been forced from their homes multiple times in the past few years, making the routine of filling sandbags and rescuing furniture into a familiar drill.

"We've been through this before," said Michelle Buhlinger, who works for the school district in Valley Park in suburban St. Louis. "We're expecting the levee to hold up, but we don't want to take any chances."

The first day of spring brought much-needed sunshine to some flooded communities, but many swelling rivers were not expected to crest until the weekend in Arkansas, Missouri, southern Illinois, southern Indiana and Kentucky.

The worst flooding happened in smaller rivers across the nation's midsection. Major channels such as the Mississippi, Missouri and Ohio rivers saw only minor flooding.

Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich declared 19 southern Illinois counties state disaster areas Thursday.

Rising water covered roads, swamped businesses and overwhelmed creeks and rivers. The floodwaters also were blamed in the Wednesday deaths of two people whose pickup truck was swept away in a low-lying stretch of Waltonville.

Authorities won't know how severe the damage is until cresting rivers, streams and creeks recede -- a process that could take days -- and evacuated residents return home, said Patti Thompson, a spokeswoman for the Illinois Emergency Management Agency.

"It was just a lot of water and it's running off of hills and farmland," she said. "It's very saturated land down there, so there's nowhere for that water to go other than to run off into streams."

Among the hardest hit areas was Saline County, where floodwaters cut off access to Harrisburg Medical Center.

The 86-bed hospital reopened Thursday as police set up detours for patients to reach the emergency room.

Some employees had to walk through levees and flooded roads to reach the facility, said hospital spokeswoman Marsha Oliboni.

"It was pretty deep," she said. "There was a car in the road leading up to the hospital and it was sitting with water halfway up on its windshield."

Illinois' disaster declaration for Alexander, Fayette, Franklin, Gallatin, Hamilton, Hardin, Jackson, Jefferson, Johnson, Marion, Massac, Perry, Pope, Pulaski, Randolph, Saline, Union, White and Williamson counties means communities will have access to state resources to help with flood and storm-related damage.

"This state disaster declaration will ensure these counties get what they need to protect public safety and speed the recovery process," Blagojevich said.

The National Weather Service says it could be several days before area rivers crest, reaching what are expected to be record levels.

In Fenton, another suburb of St. Louis, Jeff Rogles joined dozens of volunteers to fill sandbags and pile them against downtown businesses near the fast-rising Meramec River, which was expected to reach more than 20 feet above flood stage in some spots near St. Louis.

"I think we have enough volunteers out here to stave off disaster," said Rogles, 27, who joined the effort because he remembered the devastating Great Flood of 1993.

Parts of Missouri got a foot of rain over a 36-hour period this week, causing widespread flash flooding and swelling many rivers. Five deaths have been confirmed in Missouri and hundreds of people were forced from their homes. Many families will return to find their property badly damaged or destroyed.

Valley Park is protected by a flood levee completed in 2005, but the projected 40-foot-crest there on Saturday would reach within three feet of the top of the levee. As a result, many homeowners, merchants and even schools were moving to higher ground.

Police in Pacific, Mo., went door-to-door evacuating about 50 homes in low-lying areas.

In southwest Indiana, Todd Ferguson has spent the past three days building a sandbag wall around his sister-in-law's Evansville home.

Pigeon Creek normally flows about 200 yards from Valerie Ferguson's house, but the water had crept to within 10 feet and was not expected to crest until Sunday.

In 2006, the Fergusons piled more than 1,000 sandbags around their home and still sustained about $1,000 in damage. This time, they don't have help from Valerie's husband, Tim, who is serving in Iraq with the Indiana National Guard.

"We won two years ago, but I don't know if we're going to win this one," Todd Ferguson said. "Only time will tell, I guess."

In Batesville, Ark., antique mall operator Marcia Weaver stood along the banks of the Spring River and watched as pieces of lives were washed away.

"There were large pieces of furniture, dressers, picnic tables from the parks. I saw a four-wheeler going down. Lots of canoes and kayaks that didn't have anybody in them," she said.

In the tiny community of Edgewater, Ohio, relatives helped Judy Lambert move out of her double-wide mobile home. Her detached garage had a foot of water in it from the flooding Great Miami River.

"We're getting all the valuables out and trying to salvage what we can," said Lambert's son, Sean, 34. The flood is "knocking at the back door."

High water also closed the eastbound lanes of Interstate 70 for about 4 miles in central Ohio's Licking County, state police said. The floodwaters were receding by midday, but there was no estimate of when the lanes would reopen.

Levee breaches in southeast Missouri forced hundreds of people from their homes and left many major roadways impassable. The Coon Island levee near Poplar Bluff, Mo., broke around noon Thursday, and authorities were preparing to conduct water rescues if necessary.

President Bush declared a major disaster in Missouri on Wednesday night and ordered federal agencies to assist state and local authorities in flooded areas.

The Black, Big and St. Francis rivers in Missouri were also expected to flood significantly. Minor flooding was predicted on the Mississippi and Missouri rivers.

In Eureka, Mo., in St. Louis County, Patrick Butler was busy building a wall of sandbags wrapped in plastic he hoped would keep floodwaters out of a downtown building he rents to a screen-printing shop.

He said residents are nervous but well-acquainted with flooding in the low-lying Meramec River town.

"I think we'll have to just have a fishing tournament out in the street," he joked.

At least 15 deaths have been linked to the weather over the past few days, and three people were missing.

Searches were under way in Texas for a teenager who was washed down a drainage pipe, and two people were missing Thursday in Arkansas after their vehicles were swept away by rushing water on Tuesday.

Government forecasters warned Thursday that some flooding could continue in the coming days because of record rainfall and melting snow packs across much of the Midwest and Northeast.

------

Associated Press writers Betsy Taylor in St. Louis, Cheryl Wittenauer in Valley Park, Mo., Chuck Bartels in Batesville, Ark., Tom Murphy in Indianapolis, and Dan Sewell and Terry Kinney in Cincinnati contributed to this report.