Illinois Reconstruction

COLUMN ONE : Way of Life Vanishes as Water Ebbs : In July, little Niota, Ill., was swallowed by the Mississippi. Now, the river has retreated and residents face what's left behind, water-soaked ruins and lots of mud. Mostly, there are questions--stay or go?

September 9, 1993 | JUDY PASTERNAK, TIMES STAFF WRITER

It took four days for the shredder to devour Niota. The 10-foot-tall chopping machine, leased by the state and equipped with a new set of knives, had been trucked a discreet distance from the town's main streets. Thousands of tons of soaked, maggot-ridden debris were waiting. Into the hopper dropped Ted and Michelle Reinhardt's bedroom set, Marge Young's blue bicycle, the antique dresser that once belonged to Josephine Waterman's grandmother. In slid the 1962 Roger Maris baseball card that Donald Lucas had been saving.

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COLUMN ONE : Way of Life Vanishes as Water Ebbs : In July, little Niota, Ill., was swallowed by the Mississippi. Now, the river has retreated and residents face what's left behind, water-soaked ruins and lots of mud. Mostly, there are questions--stay or go?

September 9, 1993 | JUDY PASTERNAK, TIMES STAFF WRITER

It took four days for the shredder to devour Niota. The 10-foot-tall chopping machine, leased by the state and equipped with a new set of knives, had been trucked a discreet distance from the town's main streets. Thousands of tons of soaked, maggot-ridden debris were waiting. Into the hopper dropped Ted and Michelle Reinhardt's bedroom set, Marge Young's blue bicycle, the antique dresser that once belonged to Josephine Waterman's grandmother. In slid the 1962 Roger Maris baseball card that Donald Lucas had been saving.

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