Team Infidel
Forum Spin Doctor
New York Times
June 29, 2008 By Catrin Einhorn
WINFIELD, Mo. — First the National Guard soldiers stacked the Pin Oak levee with sandbags, raising it by as much as four feet.
Then they toiled to repair damage from the pounding river, dumping dirt where the water boiled through, sandbagging around leaks and propping up sections so saturated that the earth slid down, sometimes in sections hundreds of feet long.
When the levee finally gave way Friday and water surged toward this town, they refused to surrender the fight, feverishly building a new sand-filled barricade around about 100 homes in east Winfield.
But the round-the-clock battle to save the homes from the Mississippi River’s onslaught ended before dawn on Saturday, when water found its way underneath the barrier, first seeping in, then pushing over a portion of the wall and pouring over the top.
By mid-morning, the homes that soldiers had worked so hard to save looked to be standing in a lake. Residents and soldiers stood quietly as they watched the river rise.
“This is the grand finale here,” said Bob Foust, 57, who thought the water would reach two or three feet in his home. He dreaded breaking the news to his wife, still asleep at the friend’s home where they were staying.
Some residents looked stricken, others simply exhausted as they realized that their fears had been realized: an unknown amount of time outside of their homes and the foreboding task of cleaning up whatever the river left. But even as they looked out over their flooded homes, people here expressed deep thanks for what they described as heroic efforts by the soldiers.
“I think they’re more heartbroken than the actual victims,” Mr. Foust said. “They tried so hard.”
The Mississippi, now receding in Winfield, is expected to crest Monday in St. Louis and Wednesday in Cape Girardeau, in southeastern Missouri, The Associated Press reported.
The crest in Cape Girardeau, where the flood stage is 32 feet, is expected to be 42.5 feet, The A.P. reported. Some residents will have to leave, and 100,000 acres of farmland will be flooded, the National Weather Service said.
In Winfield on Saturday, most of the soldiers had been working for about 24 hours by the time the final barrier broke, officials said, refusing to take the three-hour naps their commander offered. For days before that, they had labored feverishly on the Pin Oak levee. When the river finally beat them, some broke down.
“I’ve seen more men cry in these last 9 or 11 days than I’ve ever seen cry in my lifetime,” Col. Michele Melton of the Missouri National Guard said of both devastated residents and soldiers.
The barricade failed, officials said, because they built part of it on earth instead of on asphalt in an effort to ring in a pocket of four homes. It was primarily made from 4-foot-tall wire mesh, lined baskets known as Hesco barriers, and four feet of sandbags were stacked on top.
“We’ll learn lessons from this, it’s the military way,” said Col. Wendul G. Hagler II, joint chief of staff with the Missouri National Guard.
“It was a fight worth fighting,” he said, “win or lose.”
June 29, 2008 By Catrin Einhorn
WINFIELD, Mo. — First the National Guard soldiers stacked the Pin Oak levee with sandbags, raising it by as much as four feet.
Then they toiled to repair damage from the pounding river, dumping dirt where the water boiled through, sandbagging around leaks and propping up sections so saturated that the earth slid down, sometimes in sections hundreds of feet long.
When the levee finally gave way Friday and water surged toward this town, they refused to surrender the fight, feverishly building a new sand-filled barricade around about 100 homes in east Winfield.
But the round-the-clock battle to save the homes from the Mississippi River’s onslaught ended before dawn on Saturday, when water found its way underneath the barrier, first seeping in, then pushing over a portion of the wall and pouring over the top.
By mid-morning, the homes that soldiers had worked so hard to save looked to be standing in a lake. Residents and soldiers stood quietly as they watched the river rise.
“This is the grand finale here,” said Bob Foust, 57, who thought the water would reach two or three feet in his home. He dreaded breaking the news to his wife, still asleep at the friend’s home where they were staying.
Some residents looked stricken, others simply exhausted as they realized that their fears had been realized: an unknown amount of time outside of their homes and the foreboding task of cleaning up whatever the river left. But even as they looked out over their flooded homes, people here expressed deep thanks for what they described as heroic efforts by the soldiers.
“I think they’re more heartbroken than the actual victims,” Mr. Foust said. “They tried so hard.”
The Mississippi, now receding in Winfield, is expected to crest Monday in St. Louis and Wednesday in Cape Girardeau, in southeastern Missouri, The Associated Press reported.
The crest in Cape Girardeau, where the flood stage is 32 feet, is expected to be 42.5 feet, The A.P. reported. Some residents will have to leave, and 100,000 acres of farmland will be flooded, the National Weather Service said.
In Winfield on Saturday, most of the soldiers had been working for about 24 hours by the time the final barrier broke, officials said, refusing to take the three-hour naps their commander offered. For days before that, they had labored feverishly on the Pin Oak levee. When the river finally beat them, some broke down.
“I’ve seen more men cry in these last 9 or 11 days than I’ve ever seen cry in my lifetime,” Col. Michele Melton of the Missouri National Guard said of both devastated residents and soldiers.
The barricade failed, officials said, because they built part of it on earth instead of on asphalt in an effort to ring in a pocket of four homes. It was primarily made from 4-foot-tall wire mesh, lined baskets known as Hesco barriers, and four feet of sandbags were stacked on top.
“We’ll learn lessons from this, it’s the military way,” said Col. Wendul G. Hagler II, joint chief of staff with the Missouri National Guard.
“It was a fight worth fighting,” he said, “win or lose.”