The great flood of ‘93, which has claimed more than 40 lives, uprooted 31,000 people in eight states and caused an estimated $10 billion in damage, is far from over. This weekend the Mississippi River will reach 48 feet at St. Louis, its third crest of the month. Reservoirs upstream are full, and tributaries such as Missouri’s River des Peres remain out of their banks. The Corps of Engineers now worries less about the height of river crests than how much longer the levees will hold. Over the weekend, St. Louis was stunned to find a huge leak in the 11-mile system of flood walls and levees once thought impregnable; the patch consumed 6,000 tons of rock.
Morale is sinking. Some flood victims will be out of their homes for months, and there are reports of occasional friction at temporary shelters. Looting is rare, but St. Louis police conscripted a class of recruits to patrol one neighborhood where flooded houses were burgled. And it’s still raining-waves of monsoon-like storms that continued through the weekend in defiance of river forecasters’ predictions. “Will summer ever come?” Robert Nall, sheriff of Adams County, Ill., asked wearily. Maybe–but probably not until September.
