Flood cleanup goes on despite holiday

Karl Broseman would rather spend the holiday sitting by his pool, eating barbecue and drinking a cold beer.
Instead, he’ll be into the fifth day of cleaning his flood-damaged home on the corner of Killam and Walnut streets in Winfield.
And he’ll hardly be alone.
Hundreds of flood victims in the Hannibal region continue the wearisome task of exacting order out of a rancid mess.
Broseman, a carpenter who also is a certified electrician and plumber, has been through four previous floods in Winfield. So, he was prepared.
“I took everything out of the house - all the molding, all the trim, all the furniture, everything,” Broseman said. “I gutted it.”
High water put him and his wife out of the house for two weeks. The couple returned Monday after staying with their son, Butch, in Elsberry.
“It was a mess,” Broseman said. “Muddy muck. Green slime. It was terrible.”
Broseman estimates he’s used more thann 30 gallons of bleach in addition to a lot of heavy-duty mold cleaner.
He hoped to wrap up interior work Thursday and start on the outside of the house Friday.
Nicci Lenk waited Thursday for an inspector to boat out to her family’s flooded two-story farmhouse along Crenshaw Road near Winfield.
She hadn’t seen it for 10 days, but already had a picture in her mind.
“We know pretty much what we’re going to find,” Lenk said. “There’s water in the house and it stinks.”
Lenk, her husband, Kerry Morton, and their six-year-old son, Daman Morton, do not have insurance, but hope to rebuild.
“We like it here,” Lenk said. “It’s beautiful, and I like being a little bit more secluded. You know when you live in a floodplain that this can happen.”
Lenk’s family won’t be the only one making repairs. Because he does contract work, Broseman estimated he’d gotten 40 calls within hours after telephone service was restored.
“I’ve said, ‘I’ll get to your house when I move back into mine,” he said.
Here are other flood-related developments:

Bridge re-opens
The Des Moines River Bridge connecting Alexandria and Keokuk re-opened Thursday.
Only the Great River Bridge at Burlington remains closed, and that could change soon.
Levee district officials planned to cut holes in a berm near Gulfport across the Mississippi River from Burlington.
The move was being made to let water covering 28,000 acres of farmland flow back into the receding river.
The water was being held in check by the Gulfport levee and another created by the elevated Burlington Northern Santa Fe railroad tracks.
The railroad said it’s spent $30 million on repairs, but that trains are rolling again.
Amtrak has resumed its Southwest Chief route through Fort Madison, but the California Zephyr remains out of service.
To get the latest on highway closings, go on-line to www.modot.org or www.dot.state.il.us.

Trains to roll
The first train since June 13 should travel across the Norfolk Southern railroad bridge at East Hannibal Friday morning.
An eastbound freight from Moberly is scheduled to roll through about 8 a.m. and a westbound train from Decatur should arrive around 11 a.m.
Sandbags have been removed from the Sny Island levee to allow the trains to pass at reduced speeds.
The railroad, Sny engineers and the Army Corps of Engineers have done extensive gradation tests and taken core samples to make sure the levee can withstand train traffic.
“We feel like it will be in good shape,” said Sny Superintendent Mike Reed. “We will have people there to check on things as the trains are passing.”
Representatives from the Sny and the railroad will meet in the next month to resolve issues raised during the flood.
One source of dispute was the railroad’s decision to leave the bridge gate down on the Missouri side of the Mississippi River.
“We’ve already started that dialogue and we plan to keep it going,” Reed said.

Locks re-open
Barge traffic could take a step toward normal this weekend.
Lock 21 at Quincy re-opened Thursday. Locks 22 at Saverton, 24 at Clarksville and 25 at Winfield should re-open Friday.
Lock 20 at Canton is projected to start operations again on Saturday.
Major cleanup, re-assembly and repair work continues and the Corps of Engineers doesn’t have a cost estimate yet of the damage.

Keep off
Hannibal is reminding people to stay off grass parts of its nearly mile-long earthen floodwall.
With National Tom Sawyer Days continuing through Saturday, more people will be traipsing downtown.
Cement observation areas atop the levee are accessible by stairs near floodgates at the foot of Broadway.
“Until we get the levee inspected after the flood, we’re trying to preserve everything,” said John Hark, the city’s emergency management director.
Fencing has been put at the base of the floodwall and Hannibal police plan patrols to keep people away from grass areas.
“We don’t need it marred up,” Hark said. “It’s all safety-minded precautions.”

FEMA centers
Federal Emergency Management Agency disaster recovery centers remain open, even on the holiday.
They’re located at Moberly Area Community College’s Higher Education Center (the former hospital) at 109 Virginia in Hannibal; Clark County R-1 Middle School at 384 N. Jefferson in Kahoka; the Visitors Center at 204 N. Second in Clarksville; and the Winfield-Foley Fire Station at 2663 E. Highway 47 west of Winfield.
Hours are 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. daily except Sunday.
FEMA recommends registration prior to a visit. That can be done by calling toll-free 1-800-621-3362 or TTY 1-800-462-7585 from 6 a.m. to 11 p.m. Central time. Online registration can be done at www.fema.gov.
Meanwhile, Hannibal’s separate emergency operations center, which coordinated local flood-fighting efforts, was to shut down Thursday night.
“The fight is about over,” Hark said. “It’s mainly going to be recovery now. We all fought a good fight and we all fought together. We helped each other whenever we could.”

Cleanup kits
The American Red Cross is distributing cleanup kits to families who’ve had floodwater in their homes.
The kits include a mop, bucket, gloves, sponges and cleaning supplies.
They’re available at the Community Center in Alexandria, the Fire Station in LaGrange, the Red Cross office at 109 Virginia in Hannibal and City Hall in Clarksville. They may be available shortly at the Louisiana Fire Station.
More information on cleanup kits or other Red Cross services is available by calling (573) 221-0320.
Red Cross shelters in Kahoka, Canton, Louisiana, Winfield and Quincy have closed.

July 4 plans
Some communities are scaling back or postponing Independence Day activities.
In Hannibal, National Tom Sawyer Days is taking place as scheduled, with a few minor adjustments. The mud volleyball tournament has been postponed to Aug. 1-3. Fireworks will go ahead as planned Friday night.
Louisiana will have its Fourth of July parade down Georgia Street at 4 p.m. Friday, but other events and the fireworks have been postponed to Labor Day Weekend Aug. 30-31.
Quincy also is postponing its Fourth of July Celebration, but a new date has not been set.