River towns in peril

GULFPORT, Ill. -- It was like attending a wake for an old friend. For hours Tuesday, Lois Russell sat in her light blue Buick Lucerne on a tiny county road, watching brown floodwaters slowly swallow the white farmhouse she called home for 57 years.

"What else am I going to do?" the 83-year-old said. "Where else am I going to go?"

The floodwaters that have forced thousands of people in the Midwest from their homes in recent days claimed a piece of the tiny western Illinois town of Gulfport when the rising Mississippi River broke through a levee Tuesday.

It was the third time the river spilled into the house where Russell and her husband raised seven children. In 1965 they yanked out everything down to the carpet before the flood hit, then cleaned up and started over.

Not this time.

"They all told me it's too old to take up this time," she said. "There's nothing in there that's really important. My family's here. We're all OK."

On Saturday, she had packed up her belongings and left with her two cats for her daughter's home in Terre Haute, Ill.

"I said if it ever flooded again, I wasn't moving back," she said through tears.

The levee breached as floodwaters moved south from Iowa into Illinois and Missouri.

The break forced authorities to rescue about a half-dozen people by helicopter, boat and all-terrain vehicle. The details of the rescues were unclear because of discrepancies in the numbers of people involved and the circumstances described by state and local officials.

President Bush pledged housing help and other federal aid to victims of the Midwest storms and said he would inspect flood damage in a trip to Iowa on Thursday.

Briefed on Tuesday by officials involved in the relief effort, Bush also said he would work with Congress on emergency legislation to help replenish a federal emergency disaster fund.

He told reporters there is enough in the fund to cover the most recent flooding disaster, but added: "What we're concerned about is future disasters this year."

Bush said his administration was setting up a housing task force similar to one set up in California for wildfire victims to help get people back in their homes or find other shelter.

"I fully understand people are upset when they lose their home. A person's home is their most valued possession," he said. "And we want to work with state and local folks to have a clear strategy to help people ... get back into a place where they can live."

On Tuesday, the flooding halted car travel over two bridges linking Illinois and Iowa and threatened to cover areas near Gulfport with 10 feet of water.

Preliminary estimates were the flooding has caused more than $1.5 billion in damage in Iowa, and that figure will undoubtedly rise as the high water moves downstream.

Still, officials said the cost would have been even higher if the federal government had not purchased low-lying land after historic floods in 1993 caused $12 billion in damage.

Since then, the government bought out more than 9,000 homeowners, turning much of the land into parks and undeveloped areas that can be allowed to flood with less risk. The Federal Emergency Management Agency has moved or flood-proofed about 30,000 properties.

The effort required whole communities to be moved, such as Rhineland, Mo., and Valmeyer, Ill.

In Iowa, FEMA spent $1.6 million to buy out residents of Elkport, population 80, and then knock down the village's remaining buildings. Some residents moved to Garber, Elkport's twin city across the Turkey River, but others abandoned the area.

"There's nothing there in Elkport anymore," said Helen Jennings of Garber. "They built new houses in different places."

Some of those who stayed are paying a price.

The federal government bought about a quarter of the homes in Chelsea, Iowa, after the 1993 floods, but most of the 300 residents stayed. At least 10 homes are now inundated by the Iowa River to their first floors.

Residents take it in stride, said Mayor Roger Ochs.

"For the most part, it's another flood," he said. "For Chelsea, it's more of an inconvenience."

On Tuesday, flooding remained far more serious in parts of southeast Iowa, where the Mississippi River had yet to crest.

People were urged to evacuate an area near Gulfport as floodwaters threatened about 12 square miles of farmland. Henderson County Deputy Sheriff Donald Seitz said a major highway could be under 10 feet of water by midday Wednesday.

On the Iowa side of the river, a sandbagging operation was moved south to the outskirts of Burlington after floodwaters streamed across state Highway 99.

Oakville Apostolic Church "is now an island," said Carly Wagenbach, who was taking food to levee workers.

Officials were also concerned about the integrity of a levee that protects a drainage area south of Oakville.

"It's outrageous," said Steve Poggemiller. "We're hanging on by a thread -- or a sandbag."

Jeff Campbell, a farmer carrying sandbags on his four-wheeler, said he spotted pigs swimming away from a flooded hog farm near Oakville. They were climbing a levee, poking holes in the plastic that covered it, he said.

One tired pig was lying at the bottom of the levee "like a pink sandbag," Campbell said.

Reports of raw sewage and farm runoff in floodwaters raised concerns about public health. But experts said most people are smart enough to avoid the tainted water. "Typically we don't see the outbreaks of diseases that people fear," said Mike Allred of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The rising water forced the closure of the Mississippi bridge in Burlington and stopped car traffic on the bridge in Fort Madison. The bridge's railroad tracks remained open. A bridge downriver in Keokuk also remained open.

To the north in Cedar Rapids, floodwaters had dropped enough that officials let hundreds of people return to their damaged homes and businesses.

"It's obviously much more shocking when you walk in the door for the first time and see what happened," said Amy Wyss, watching sullenly as a giant blower was used to dry out her upscale wine bar, Zins. "I don't think you can be prepared for this, even if you think you are."

The National Weather Service expects crests this week along some Mississippi River communities near St. Louis to come close to those of 1993. The river at Canton, Mo., could reach 27.5 feet on Thursday, just shy of the 27.88 mark of 1993 and more than 13 feet above flood stage.

Crests at Quincy, Ill., and Hannibal, Mo., are expected to climb to about 15 feet above flood stage, still narrowly short of the high water from 15 years ago.

In St. Louis, the Mississippi is projected to crest Saturday at 39.8 feet, about 10 feet above flood stage but still a foot lower than in 1993.