Illinois city orders residents to evacuate
Source: Agencies |
May 2, 2011, Monday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
THE mayor of a small southern Illinois city in the United States threatened by two swollen rivers ordered all residents to leave by midnight on Saturday because a "sand boil," an area where river water was seeping up through the ground behind the levee, had become dangerously large.
Cairo Mayor Judson Childs issued a mandatory evacuation order for the city of 2,800 residents on Saturday afternoon after meeting with Major General Michael Walsh, the Army Corps of Engineers officer tasked with deciding whether to blow a hole in the Birds Point levee in Missouri, downstream from Cairo, to relieve pressure on levees along the dangerously high Ohio and Mississippi rivers.
Walsh, who toured Cairo's levee area, described the boil that has been growing since it was first spotted on Tuesday as the largest he had ever seen, the Southeast Missourian newspaper reported.
Sand boils occur when high-pressure water pushes under flood walls and levees and wells up through the soil behind them. They're a potential sign of trouble.
Childs said in a news release that the boil had been stabilized and that officials would monitor it closely.
The river is expected to crest in Cairo by tomorrow morning and stay there through at least Thursday afternoon, according to the National Weather Service. The corps fears that water pressure from the lingering river crest could compromise the flood wall and earthen levees that protect other parts of the city.
Rain was expected to fall in the area yesterday, and authorities had been urging residents to leave Cairo before the mandatory order was issued. Earlier, Cairo police Chief Gary Hankins estimated that about 1,000 residents remained.
The corps inched closer on Saturday to blowing a hole in the Birds Point levee after a federal appeals court declined to stop the move. The corps moved a pair of barges loaded with the makings of an explosive sludge into position near levee, which is on the Mississippi River just downstream from Cairo in Missouri, but said it hadn't decided that it needed to breach the earthen wall to protect Cairo.
The 230 people who live in the southeast Missouri flood plain behind the Birds Point levee had already been evacuated from their homes, a spokesman for Missouri Governor Jay Nixon said. Some of the farmers whose land would be inundated moved out what they could on Saturday, assuming the corps will have no choice as the Mississippi and Ohio that feeds it rise.
"When the water hits this dirt, it's going to make a hell of a mess," one of the farmers, Ed Marshall, said as he packed up his farm office and hauled away propane tanks and other equipment. He said he was keeping an eye on the weather forecast, which called for several more centimeters of rain over the next few days.
Cairo Mayor Judson Childs issued a mandatory evacuation order for the city of 2,800 residents on Saturday afternoon after meeting with Major General Michael Walsh, the Army Corps of Engineers officer tasked with deciding whether to blow a hole in the Birds Point levee in Missouri, downstream from Cairo, to relieve pressure on levees along the dangerously high Ohio and Mississippi rivers.
Walsh, who toured Cairo's levee area, described the boil that has been growing since it was first spotted on Tuesday as the largest he had ever seen, the Southeast Missourian newspaper reported.
Sand boils occur when high-pressure water pushes under flood walls and levees and wells up through the soil behind them. They're a potential sign of trouble.
Childs said in a news release that the boil had been stabilized and that officials would monitor it closely.
The river is expected to crest in Cairo by tomorrow morning and stay there through at least Thursday afternoon, according to the National Weather Service. The corps fears that water pressure from the lingering river crest could compromise the flood wall and earthen levees that protect other parts of the city.
Rain was expected to fall in the area yesterday, and authorities had been urging residents to leave Cairo before the mandatory order was issued. Earlier, Cairo police Chief Gary Hankins estimated that about 1,000 residents remained.
The corps inched closer on Saturday to blowing a hole in the Birds Point levee after a federal appeals court declined to stop the move. The corps moved a pair of barges loaded with the makings of an explosive sludge into position near levee, which is on the Mississippi River just downstream from Cairo in Missouri, but said it hadn't decided that it needed to breach the earthen wall to protect Cairo.
The 230 people who live in the southeast Missouri flood plain behind the Birds Point levee had already been evacuated from their homes, a spokesman for Missouri Governor Jay Nixon said. Some of the farmers whose land would be inundated moved out what they could on Saturday, assuming the corps will have no choice as the Mississippi and Ohio that feeds it rise.
"When the water hits this dirt, it's going to make a hell of a mess," one of the farmers, Ed Marshall, said as he packed up his farm office and hauled away propane tanks and other equipment. He said he was keeping an eye on the weather forecast, which called for several more centimeters of rain over the next few days.
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