By Annabeth Miller,{br]ShowMe Times Editor

BIRDS POINT, Mo. - After a long and rainy day Monday, the Army Corps of Engineers announced it would finally happened. What everyone fighting and watching the Mississippi River flood this spring had been talking about – the Corps would blast a hole in the levee between Birds Point and New Madrid.

Maj. Gen. Michael Walsh announced late Monday afternoon on the levee near Birds Point that he issued the order to activate the floodway and blow three holes in the more than 30 miles of levee system. The first blast will be a three-mile wide breach at the northern end of the system near Birds Point.

“I've ordered the district commander to operate the project," Walsh said in a matter-of-fact tone.

Walsh made his announcement on top the rain-drenched levee within sight of the “old” Mississippi River bridge near Cairo. A gaggle of media was on hand – metro television stations, national networks and news services, large daily newspapers – and local news journals, radio and television. The Corps inflated a bright yellow tent at an intersection Highway 60/62 and a county road so officials and media could escape the constant rain for the news event.

“Everyone I have talked with -- from boat operators, to laborers, scientists and engineers, and truck drivers have all said the same thing – ‘I never thought I would see the day that the river would reach these levels’,” Walsh said. He called this spring’s floods an “historic chocolate tide.”

Walsh said the Corps will blast the first of three holes in the levee between 9 p.m. Monday night and 12 midnight Tuesday morning.

He said he would prefer to blow thelevee during the daylight but said they must detonate the explosives as soon as possible due to the weakening levee system. Walsh said the levee system needs relief as soon as possible from “enormous, unprecedented” pressure.

Walsh gave the order to activate the floodway to the Col. Vernie Reichling, commander of the Corps’ Memphis district. Reichling said crews began work on loading blasting agent into the pipes in the levee over the weekend. Crews were pulled from the work Sunday evening due to storms. “You’re not going to see a huge explosion,” said Reichling. “What you’re going to see is basically designed to uplift the levee and break it. The levee is designed with heavy clays; it is a very impenetrable structure. This explosive material was specifically designed to penetrate and loosen that up.”

For days the Corps has been trying to manage the flooding and to decide if activation of the flood plan originally written in 1928 should be activated. The only other time the flood plan has been activated was in the 1938 flood.

The multi-step plan will blow three holes in the levee system in Southeast Missouri, flooding more than 133,000 acres of prime agriculture land, destroying more than 100 homes and virtually destroying a way of life.

Local officials in Mississippi County as well as the Missouri National Guard have worked since the weekend to prepare residents of the region for evacuation. The Guard announced that they have completed evacuation the residents of the region, and only “had to escort” one individual from the area Monday afternoon.

"This doesn't end this historic flood," Walsh said. "This is just the beginning. This is just one floodway."

Photos Above: (top) Maj. Gen. Michael Walsh announced Monday afternoon he had issued the order to activate the Birds Point New Madrid Floodway late Monday night. (bottom) Vernie Reichling explains about the blasting of a plug in the levee at Birds Point as U.S. Rep. Jo Ann Emerson listens.

By Annabeth Miller,
ShowMe Times Editor

BIRDS POINT, Mo. - U.S. Rep. Jo Ann Emerson has been busy lately – listening to constituents and working with agencies trying to help the victims to this spring’s flooding. On Monday afternoon she was on top of a Mississippi River levee – listening as the President of the Mississippi River Commission ordered holes be blown into a 36-mile levee in her Southeast Missouri congressional district.

Emerson listened intently – and intensely - as Maj. Gen Michael Walsh announced had given the order to activate the Birds Point New Madrid Floodway plan and blow the levee holes in an effort to relieve the system from enormous pressure.

Emerson has opposed the Corps option of fighting the flood along the river by detonating fuse plugs of the system to relieve the river.

"This is not a political issue; it's a people issue,” she said.

But Emerson was on top of the levee Monday afternoon, listening as Walsh gave the order to activate the plan.

“It’s terribly disappointing,” Emerson said minutes after Walsh’s levee-top news conference concluded. “I feel horrible about it and I know everybody else does. I actually think Gen. Walsh feels pretty bad about it himself. It is his job to care about the whole system, but I care about Missouri.

Emerson did acknowledge that “at the end of the day” the decision to blow the levee was, indeed, the general's.

She noted that an appeal to a the U.S. Supreme Court turned down a request to reexamine a federal suit filed by Missouri Attorney General Chris Koster to stop the Corps from blasting the levee.

“I am hopeful that in ruining the lives of all our constituents here (in the floodway) that somehow the system then maintains its integrity. But I don’t feel 100 percent sure that that will happen,” she said. The Corps’ decision saying that the decision puts residents’ lives and livelihoods at “unacceptable risk,” she said.

“The New Madrid floodway is not a failsafe for the rest of the Mississippi River Basin. The likelihood of dramatic flooding at other points along the river has not been changed by the decision today, but opening the floodway guarantees that the people living and working in the New Madrid floodway will suffer, she said. “We have a long, long road ahead of us.”

Emerson noted that damage to homes, buildings and productive farmland and the local economy would take years to set right.

“I have high expectations that the Corps go above and beyond to aid the recovery effort for the people and communities affected by this disaster,” she said.

SIKESTON - The Missouri Department of Transportation has no plans to close Route 60 from Poplar Bluff to Dexter. MoDOT crews continue to monitor roadways throughout southeast Missouri and updated roadway information will be available as situations change.

For more information, please contact MoDOT's Customer Service Center toll-free at 1-888-ASK-MODOT (1-888-275-6636) or visit the Traveler Information Map at: http://maps.modot.mo.gov/timi/index.aspx?district=10

By Annabeth Miller,
ShowMe Times Editor

WAPPAPELLO, Mo. – In the wee morning hours, the “unthinkable” happened at Lake Wappapello when a temporary berm built last week was topped, allowing lake water to begin flooding below Wappapello dam.

Dale Moreland of the Stoddard County EOS office reported that the topping of the dam began at about 2 a.m. At 6:30 a.m. Monday, Moreland reported the lake stage was at 398.13, with an expected crest later in the day at 399.2. Output early in the morning was at 14,000 cfs (cubic fee per second) and expected to exceed 23,450 cfs.

“During the flood of 1945, the largest output was at 18,600 cfs, and lake level was 398.979. So we are getting real close to those records.”

Moreland reported he received a report early Monday morning on the condition of T Highway, which crosses the spillway and dam.

“I received a report from a highway patrol troop at the scene that T Highway was already cut in two,” Moreland said.

Floodwaters from Wappapello will flood an area along the St. Francis River Basin south into Arkansas and as far east as possibly Highway F in Stoddard County. In anticipation of the flooding in the county, Moreland said Stoddard County Sheriff’s deputies and members of Stoddard County’s volunteer fire departments have gone door-to-door in the projected area.

“They have warned people that they may be flooded and that they may want to evacuate,” he said. The affected area could reach as far east as Highway F (Aid Road), south of Puxico and the Powe community. “Dudley will be affected.”

Moreland also said that the flooding from Wappapello would affect Highway 60, saying the major east-west highway would most likely be closed in different places from Fisk to the Aid Road. Heavy rains over the weekend dumped even more rain in the region, exasperating the situation. And almost like pouring salt onto a wound, an additional 3 – 4 inches of rain is expected Monday. Moreland said county emergency workers are watching the radar constantly for the new round of rain.

“The water is rising,” Moreland said. “It’s not going to be a gush. It will be a slow, gradual rise and it is rising at this time.”

Photo Above: Flooding waters escape over the berm at the emergency spillway at Lake Wappapello Monday morning. To the right in the photo, the damage to Highway T by the water is visible.

BREAKING NEWS

An SMT News Report

SIKESTON, Mo. - The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is taking the final steps to activating the Birds Point New Madrid levee in Mississippi County. For the second time on Sunday afternoon, the Corps has taken a step in the activation process.

However, the officer in charge says that decision has still yet to be made.

Maj. Gen. Michael Walsh ordered crews on Sunday afternoon to move barges loaded with 250 tons of explosives across into position on the levey and to load the pipes with the explosive agent.

The final step would be to activate the floodway, which would send Mississippi River floodwaters through the breach in the levee and through the 130,000-acre floodway.

"The final decision to activate the floodway has not been made. Repeat - has not been made," the corps said in a release.