Flooding spreads through the St. Louis region

ST. LOUIS – Widespread flooding has shut down dozens of businesses, pushed sewage into the Meramec River, forced evacuation from hundreds of homes and is to close a section of Interstate 44 early Wednesday.

It’s been more than 20 years since such extensive flooding has hit the St. Louis region. And while the record downpours over the weekend and Monday have subsided, area rivers continued rising Tuesday, bringing with it anxiety of more damage.

The Mississippi River was expected to crest Thursday in downtown St. Louis at 43.7 feet, nearly 14feet above flood stage. That would be the second-highest on record, nudging aside the April 1973 flood of 43.2 feet. The forecast crest still would be about 6 feet lower than the record from Aug. 1, 1993.

The notoriously fast-rising Meramec was causing the most havoc, rising toward I-44 and against the new levee system at Valley Park, which was built after a record flood there in December 1982. It jumped 27 feet from Saturday to late Tuesday, when it was at 35 feet and heading toward a crest Thursday of 43 feet – more than 3 feet over the record. It will test the top of the levee.

The Meramec also threatened several other records along its lower reaches.

Mayor Mike Pennise said he recommended that people living near the levee move out and promised to order a mandatory evacuation when the river reaches 40 feet. He said the levee protects to 44 feet and the gates to 42.5 feet, but crews can top the thick gates with sandbags if necessary.

“The engineers still like the integrity of the system,” he said. “We’re optimistic, but people are getting themselves ready. They’d rather lose a couch than a life.”

The Meramec overwhelmed a sewer-treatment plant at Fenton on Monday night, sending untreated sewage into the river.

In Pacific, volunteers filled sandbags and stacked them along points of the Burlington Northern Santa Fe railroad grade, which doubles as a levee protecting the town. “It was an amazing show of support,” said Mayor Jeffrey Palmore.

Just downstream at Eureka, where the crest forecast for late Wednesday would beat the 1982 record by 3 feet, officials asked sandbaggers to gather at 8a.m. Wednesday at Blevens Elementary School.

The Big River, a tributary of the Meramec, was forecast to crest Wednesday within 3 feet of a record that has held since 1915.

The mighty Mississippi rose from its banks, lapping at the Gateway Arch stairs as tourists lined up for rides to the top and construction crews worked on a $380million renovation of the riverfront park grounds. The high, churning water closed a portion of the river to barge traffic.