Floods Iowa

Flooding forced the evacuation Tuesday of more than 1,000 people from several small towns in southwestern Iowa, including everyone from one town of 215 residents, after thunderstorms dumped up to seven inches of rain overnight. Many people returned home as streams crested and began receding, but more rain was forecast. Gov. Terry E.

With no snow on the ground in this unseasonably warm state, the only blizzard Iowans are facing is the daily onslaught of negative political ads as they turn on their televisions, tune in their radios or visit their mailboxes. And they aren't safe when they pick up the phone or fire up their Internet connections either. "Oh goodness," said Jill Jepsen, 57, a retired department store employee who lives in Oskaloosa and supports former House Speaker Newt Gingrich. "I just don't listen to it. I can't listen to it. It makes me sick.

Sometime Tuesday, without fanfare or drama, the flooding Mississippi River quietly crested here. After several nervous weeks, the worst had come--and it wasn't nearly as bad as it could have been. "Maybe it's cresting now," Public Works Director Dee Bruemmer said with a weary smile as she walked along a still-intact sandbag levee at midday. "Maybe it crested a few minutes ago, maybe in a while. Whenever, we're doing pretty good."

As the flooded Mississippi River began slowly receding Thursday, Federal Emergency Management Agency Director Joe Allbaugh toured this area: eyeing the devastation, salving feelings hurt by comments he had made earlier in the week but also suggesting federal disaster-relief policy was up for review.

The Mississippi River sent a chill through St. Louis on Friday when it caused a major leak under the city's flood wall. A flash flood drowned three boys and a young man exploring a cave south of the city and swept away a woman and two boys, who were presumed dead. The flood wall sprung its leak in an area called Baden, in the north end of the city. The leak sent workers at a nearby factory scurrying for safety. St.

Feasting on floodwaters, the Missouri River rose faster and higher on Friday than had been anticipated, its crest skimming the tops of the few levees still standing and quickening the pace toward a fateful rendezvous with the Mississippi River just north of this city of more than 400,000 people. Moving up three feet in 24 hours, the Missouri and two feeder creeks transformed the state capital of Jefferson City into a near-island, cutting off access from the north, east and west.

As the flooded Mississippi River began slowly receding Thursday, Federal Emergency Management Agency Director Joe Allbaugh toured this area: eyeing the devastation, salving feelings hurt by comments he had made earlier in the week but also suggesting federal disaster-relief policy was up for review.

The Mississippi River rolled to a new high Tuesday night, hurling more floodwater through a levee along a tributary on the south side of town and trapping at least two city workers in water up to their necks. Authorities sent a fire boat to rescue them. But the driver of a front-end loader reached them first and hauled them to safety. A fireman said the workers were plugging holes in the levee. At one point, he said, up to three might have been trapped--but that all were saved.

The Mississippi River, swollen by another round of downpours Monday, hit record flood levels at some Iowa towns Tuesday and threatened to keep rising. Officials warned that miles of earthen levees already are in danger of collapse, and storms were forecast through the end of the week in the flood-weary region. Evacuations were taking place in small communities in Missouri, Illinois and Iowa as the muddy river expanded.

President Reagan on Friday paved the way for federal aid for parts of Ohio and Iowa, declaring them to be major disaster areas as a result of severe flooding that occurred in late May and earlier this month, the White House announced.

The Mississippi River crested Wednesday at Davenport, where the levees held and a war of words with the Bush administration's top disaster official quieted--at least for the moment. The river crested early Wednesday alongside this city of nearly 100,000 people at 22.3 feet, shy of the predicted peak of 22.5 feet and below the record crest in 1993 of 22.6 feet.

Sometime Tuesday, without fanfare or drama, the flooding Mississippi River quietly crested here. After several nervous weeks, the worst had come--and it wasn't nearly as bad as it could have been. "Maybe it's cresting now," Public Works Director Dee Bruemmer said with a weary smile as she walked along a still-intact sandbag levee at midday. "Maybe it crested a few minutes ago, maybe in a while. Whenever, we're doing pretty good."

Dozens of other Mississippi River towns learned their lesson 36 years ago. After the devastating flood of '65, they built flood walls. But with the third "100-year" flood in a decade now approaching its crest here, this city of 98,000 still has no riprap levee, no steel gate system, no grass-covered dike protecting it from the rising river. And everywhere Mayor Phillip C. Yerington went Monday, it seemed, people wanted to know why.

About 1,500 people remained out of their homes as the surging waters of the Cedar River flooded 65 city blocks in Waverly, Iowa. The community was cut in two as the river crested early in the day at just over 21 feet--2 feet higher than the previous record set in 1993. As many as 650 homes and a dozen downtown businesses were affected. No injuries were reported. Electricity in Waverly, a town of 8,500, was shut off and residents were told to lock their doors when they were evacuated.

Residents began evacuating low-lying areas of the city Wednesday as flooding along the Cedar River reached a record level following a night of torrential rain. There were no immediate estimates on the number of evacuees, but Mayor Jim Erb advised anyone living along the river or nearby Hires Creek to be ready to leave the north-central Iowa town of 8,000 people, about 45 miles northwest of Waterloo.

Feasting on floodwaters, the Missouri River rose faster and higher on Friday than had been anticipated, its crest skimming the tops of the few levees still standing and quickening the pace toward a fateful rendezvous with the Mississippi River just north of this city of more than 400,000 people. Moving up three feet in 24 hours, the Missouri and two feeder creeks transformed the state capital of Jefferson City into a near-island, cutting off access from the north, east and west.

Roads turned to rivers and the rivers ran amok Tuesday as a stalled late-summer storm dumped nearly a foot of rain across southern Iowa. For hours, rising water shut off roads to towns. Schools were closed, trains were stranded or rerouted and low-lying cropland was damaged. No serious injuries were reported. All roads leading to the Wayne County seat of Corydon, about 50 miles south of Des Moines, were blocked by water.

About 1,500 people remained out of their homes as the surging waters of the Cedar River flooded 65 city blocks in Waverly, Iowa. The community was cut in two as the river crested early in the day at just over 21 feet--2 feet higher than the previous record set in 1993. As many as 650 homes and a dozen downtown businesses were affected. No injuries were reported. Electricity in Waverly, a town of 8,500, was shut off and residents were told to lock their doors when they were evacuated.

The Mississippi River sent a chill through St. Louis on Friday when it caused a major leak under the city's flood wall. A flash flood drowned three boys and a young man exploring a cave south of the city and swept away a woman and two boys, who were presumed dead. The flood wall sprung its leak in an area called Baden, in the north end of the city. The leak sent workers at a nearby factory scurrying for safety. St.

As a clanging church bell sounded a warning, the Mississippi River crashed through a levee Thursday and wiped out Kaskaskia Island, a historic plug of land that was home to 150 people who held out to the terrible end. In Des Moines, spigots shuddered, then hiccuped and finally gurgled for the first time in 12 days when a flooded-out water plant came to life. Tap water was restored to a quarter of a million people living in the largest city in America to go dry.