Flooding Backs Off In Illinois Forecast Rain Fails To Show Up, But Rivers High Above Normal

Muriel Schreiber, owner of Muriel’s Cafe, can continue to offer dining with a river view. The floodwaters across the street aren’t getting any closer.

For several days, a second round of serious flooding seemed imminent in Big River country, especially here at the confluence of the Mississippi and Illinois rivers, about 15 miles north of St. Louis.

Then on Monday, the National Weather Service scaled back its projections for river crestings.

That means more homes and businesses along Main Street in Grafton, already hard-hit this year, should not get submerged. And Mississippi water shouldn’t stray any closer to Schreiber’s picnic tables than across the street, where it’s still hundreds of yards beyond its banks.

Schreiber had feared her restaurant was about to get flooded out, joining the ranks of Cassens Bros. Bait & Tackle and Rowling Bros. service station, both of which are just down the road and almost completely underwater.

“Boy, am I glad. It would have been a mess,” said Schreiber, 63, a former print shop owner who opened her place last year because she liked people too much to stay retired.

This is Part Two of the Great Flood of ‘95, a dramatic natural disaster that only pales in comparison to 1993, the worst flooding in recent memory.

Enduring the fifth wettest spring on record, rivers in Illinois and Missouri rivers rose to near-record levels around May 22. Much of the water came in two days, May 16-17, when the St. Louis area, for example, was hit with 10 inches of rain.

The rain returned last week, and when the National Weather Service projected another 4-inch downpouring by Memorial Day, a second dangerously high crest was projected.

But much of that rain didn’t materialize, said Roy Eckberg, a National Weather Service meteorologist in St. Louis. So Grafton’s crest was revised downward by more than a foot to 30.8 feet, to be reached Wednesday. That’s still more than 12 feet above flood stage. But it’s a full 8 feet below the high-water mark set in 1993, still visible as a muddy brown line on many buildings in town.

Further upriver in Illinois, there are still several towns threatened by rising water, said Chris Tamminga, a spokeswoman for the state’s Emergency Management Agency.

In Meredosia, on the Illinois River, volunteers and 80 state prison inmates were frantically sandbagging Monday to keep ahead of the crest. The state was also keeping a watchful eye on several levees along the river.

“We’re hoping water levels will drop dramatically and quickly because we’re not expecting rain,” Tamminga said.

In Missouri, sandbagging has stopped as the Missouri River in Jefferson City approached its second crest Monday, said state EMA spokeswoman Susie Stonner.

“Federal levees are holding. They’re flexing, but holding,” she said.

Grafton, a small river town that plays to tourists, has been one of the communities hit hardest by the flooding. With the intersection of Main Street and Route 3 under water, Grafton is cut in half.

It’s now an eight-mile trek along back roads to get from one end of town to the other, instead of a three-minute drive.

The alternative is to take the city’s emergency taxi: a motorboat driven by local retiree Jack Shook. At one spot in town, the water is so deep that tall passengers should duck to avoid getting smacked in the face by telephone lines.