Alton Telegraph (Newspaper) - August 15, 1993, Alton, Illinois Pope says Ameri can needs prayer A3 Landers tys for too Saturn recalls CM 1 Jordan case turns to finances B takers rl of celebrity tidbits and i Sunday i Aw extra helping of opinions from around the town and the nation ILLINOIS A HEwore tna Jj B ml in AUGUST Turn on water firm says Telegraph staff report ALTON Its time to let the water Water has restored full water service to its users and now is not the time for Residents are now urged to use water to assure disinfection of their own service com pany spokesman Wayne Schlos ser said in a prepared statement Outside water use is All customers have water ser vice for the first time since the water plant in Alton was knock ed out of commission 1 by Guard came to rescue By MARY BRASE Telegraph staff writer ALTON Army National Guard Todd Braun of Spar ta turned 21 last week and cele by Ill take care of it when I get he After six weeks of fighting the Braun and his buddies in the and Military Police companies have settled into a daily routine of watching the tourists watch the flooded Mississippi River make its way out of The guardsmen stopped sand bagging two weeks ago after the Great Flood sneaking under a levee via the sewer system and swamping most of But without the coping with the flood would have been much Its not but its said D See Page A2 record But water is still unsafe to drink or cook even if it is Schlosser The com pany also advised against using water for bathing infants or peo ple with sensitive Water quality testing will determine when the water is again safe for all Schlosser Technicians from the com pany and the Illinois Environ mental Protection Agency will test water quality over the next several Partial water service was restored several days after the plant went but some cus tomers in the Brighton area and Damage to railroad tracks A4 Call for A5 Guard fins long history of A5 Flood may spur Interest In A5 Elsah were without until Schlosser said floodwaters have receded around the water plant on the Great River Road and huge pumps have sucked out water from all areas to allow for better damage motors have been cleaned and dried and reinstalled in previously flooded pump allowing plant capacity and pressure to increase to normal about 9 million gallons a Schlos ser The Mississippi River has turned fickle on forecasters try ing to predict how heavy rainfall will affect river Forecasters stopped cleanup crews in their tracks Thursday with projections the river would do an in its fall and rise 3 feet this That forecast was toned down and the river continued to fall short of projections The Mississippi at Alton stood at feet at 6 Saturday and had fallen to feet by 5 Thats a foot lower than Fri days The National Weather Service forecast a continued slow fall with stages of feet feet Monday and feet Flood stage is 21 At a new crest of feet was expected Saturday with the river falling to feet today and feet Mon day before rising to feet Flood stage at Grafton is 18 The river crested at feet 1 at 6 feet above the previous highwater record set in Workers had frantically sandbagged the water plant to keep the floodwater out A thunderstorm with high winds the night before the record crest sent waves crashing into the water plant and officials lat er said the waves were as much the cause of the plant shutdown as the record Now debate begins over flood plains By LINDA WELLER For The Telegraph Todd Braun directs traffic at High water marks w S St Charles including West ranks sixth in the nation for repetitive losses from natural a federal official Repetitive losses have been quite a burden on those who go back in there and on taxpayers who continually bail them out and carry the freight said Ron a floodplain expert with the Federal Emergency Management who spoke Friday night at a flood forum at the St Louis County Library said Charles County has too much development on the Mississippi Coast The flood forum showed everybody has an ion on what went wrong with the Flood of 93 and that the debate is not likely to end Attending along with McCabe were Roger hydrologist Jay Lehr and insurance industry representative William Way A favorite target of criticism was the federal government and its policies on managing river controlling development and doling out D See Page A2 Here are some Appliances and gas controls exposed to flooding may be dam aged and dangerous and should be according to prod uct safety specialists for White an appliance manufac turing division of Emerson Elec tric The warning applies to all makes of appliances and safety and gas controls for products such as hot water heat boilers and clothes The products may work nor mally right after flooding but corrosion leading to possible explosions or fires if appliance use The Gas Appliances Manufac Association recommends replacing all appliances that were in WhiteRod gers Low TODAY Sunday Partly cloudy with a 30 percent chance of thunderstorms high in low 90s and low in Monday through Wednesday Chance of thunderstorms each day highs in the lower 90s and lows in the lower Extended forecast and current Page The Illinois Historic Preserva tion Agency has some tips for owners restoring historic build ings damaged by This natural disaster need not mean a disaster for Illinois said agency director D See Page A2 Elsah takes stock of the future to save the past By SUE HURLEY For The Telegraph Ua The SMITH Harv Kaufmann uses a power washer to clean flood debris from shutters off the home of his friend Stamm during a flood cleanup effort In Elsah ELSAH The cleanup of the historic village will be than putting things back in the order they were before the sum mers record I believe that is not an Mayor Jane Pfeifer lugging a case of bottled water Saturday onto the porch of an ill neighbors We have to think about when this happens These old houses cannot be flooded Thats a big priority that the community needs to One possibility is moving some of the historic homes to higher I dont know how owners will feel about but we have to ask those Pfeifer Can Riverview House oldest building take another one of these What would it cost to move it if you could move it This was a pretty little and it will be pretty but itll take but what How are we going to take care of these peoples needs Those are the big The National Trust for Histor ic which received money from the federal flood relief has hired a structural engineer with exper tise in historic preservation to provide technical assistance to residents whose homes have been The engineer will be in town Monday and The trust decided that one of the things that people need is expert advice on how to take care of their flooded Pfeifer Its easy to be over zealous and ruin things that might otherwise have been Green Tree Inn owner Mike Pitchford pumped out water and hosed down the lobby of his hotel on Mill As coworkers of his from Union Electric tore down damaged woodwork and washed floors and Pitchford said few residents believed the river could do what it did to the tiny Nobody thought it was going to get this he shaking his When we first started building the sandbag we built it to the 73 By the i J See
