PIEDMONT, MO — . -- Before the skies darken and rain returns to this soaked corner of the heartland, people are scrambling to salvage what they can.
Thunderstorms are predicted to hit this blue-collar Missouri town of not quite 2,000 by today. It's a frightening forecast, after a foot or more of rain fell last week across parts of the Midwest, triggering floods in Missouri that left five people dead, submerged rural towns and swept residents away as they tried to flee.
Nearly a third of Piedmont -- and all but one shop along downtown's Main Street -- was flooded. Tons of soil flowed out of McKenzie Creek, an angry dark morass that swallowed everything in its way: pet carriers and medical files, city plows and entire homes.
It's not over: National Weather Service meteorologists warned that last week's floods were just a preview of what promises to be a spring filled with record-breaking rainfall and some of the worst flooding the central part of the country has seen in decades.
On Tuesday, the rising floodwaters moved downriver, straining levees in northern and central Arkansas. And forecasts of more rain landed hard in this town nestled in the Ozark foothills, where the number of retirees is double the national average, and of those residents old enough to hold a job, more than half are unemployed.
Construction crews in Piedmont used the Tuesday respite to repair the sewer system. The town's water supply is back, though it will be at least a week before water can be drunk without boiling it first.
When residents took a break from drying out sodden carpets and wet shotguns, they nervously wondered if this was the beginning of the biggest flood season since 1993.
Those were the most costly and devastating floods to ravage the central United States in modern history, according to Patrick Slattery, a spokesman for the National Weather Service's central region headquarters in Kansas City. For months, floodwaters swirled across the Midwest and the Plains, causing 48 deaths and $26.7 billion in damage. Agriculture levees crumbled. Farmland and transportation routes were destroyed. Thousands were forced from their homes.
"Everyone in Piedmont is freaked about what's coming," said Wanda Patton, who manages the Stone Crest Motel, where locals had been using its pool's chlorinated water to bathe and wash dishes. "Everyone I know is scared."
