A makeshift barrier holding back the Mississippi River failed early on Saturday, swamping the low-lying part of the small eastern Missouri community of Winfield and ending a valiant but ultimately doomed battle against flooding that has devastated other parts of the US Midwest.
About 300 National Guard soldiers worked nearly 20 hours to build a levee around a cluster of 100 homes in the flood plain after the river ripped through another levee there early on Friday. Officials hoped the barrier would keep the water at bay long enough for it to recede, but it was overcome.
“It was a valiant effort,” said Chris Azar of the Winfield-Foley Fire Department. “It’s unfortunate that we couldn’t do more, but Mother Nature won. Now, just give it time for the water to recede.”
Storms and flooding in six midwestern US states this month have forced tens of thousands of people to evacuate, been responsible for the deaths of at least 24 people and caused billions of dollars in damage.
At a Red Cross shelter at Winfield High School, the sound of hundreds of volunteers’ shovels hitting sand and backhoes transporting sandbags had been a fixture for days. On Saturday the lot was largely quiet, while National Guard troops slept on cots inside after working through the night.
The new barrier had a steel frame with layers of dirt, plastic and sandbags. But water began seeping below and through around midnight, and it was clear in the hours before sunrise it was not going to hold.
At least 60 homes in the cluster were flooded, Azar said, although authorities were still assessing the damage.
Many other homes in Winfield sit on a hill above the river and were well out of harm’s way.
Winfield, 72km northwest of St Louis, is in Lincoln County, which has been particularly hard hit.
County emergency operations spokesman Andy Binder said 92 homes have been destroyed and 36 others have major damage; 650 cannot be evaluated yet because they remain inaccessible.
The Mississippi is receding at Winfield and towns to the north but remains well above flood stage. Crests were expected reach St Louis today and Cape Girardeau in southeastern Missouri on Wednesday.
Cape Girardeau, where the river’s flood stage is 9.75m, is expected to see a crest of 13m. At that level, some residents will have to leave and 40,500 hectares of farmland will be flooded, the National Weather Service said.
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