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CNN Live Today

Mississippi River Rising With Floods; Interview with Ken Schaefer

Aired May 16, 2002 - 10:01   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: We begin this hour with the floodwaters that are slowly receding across the Midwest, but more spring storms and more unwanted rain are on the way.

Our Jeff Flock is alongside the bulging Mississippi and its flooded river banks. He is in St. Louis today -- Jeff, good morning.

JEFF FLOCK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Daryn. I'm on the steps what they call the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial. Essentially, you know it as the St. Louis Arch. These are the steps, and I could walk down if it weren't for floodwaters. I could walk all the way down there to the road that is off behind me, and that's where people come down and really observe the river. But now the river is up here right here in their face.

Perhaps you can see that we are on the steps here, and if we give you another camera look, perhaps you can see the grandiose arch as it spans up into the sky here, and as I said, the river is lapping right at the arch.

Now, I want to make my way up the steps here, if I can, and talk to the man who is with the National Park Service here to put perspective on where we are. You see where the floodwaters are now, and I've got Rick here, if you can see it, a plaque which says, "August 1, 1993." And can I get behind you? And you can actually see it, and that is the river level in 1993. So they've got a long way to go.

Ken Schaefer, National Park Service, you are not anywhere near in Moses-like proportions at this point.

KEN SCHAEFER, NATIONAL PARK SERVICE: No, we are certainly at this point in time. I have been here 10 years now, and this is the third time I recall the water getting this high in the park though. So we are about 10 feet, 12 feet from where we were in '93, which is the worst flood we have had.

FLOCK: OK. Now, take me out to that gauge out there, because you've got river gauge out there. They are talking crests today on the Mississippi of --what is it -- 37-and-a-half?

SCHAEFER: Thirty-seven-and-a-half feet is what they are predicting at the moment. FLOCK: Where are we?

SCHAEFER: You can see we are right at 37 right now, so we probably have another six inches to go...

FLOCK: OK.

SCHAEFER: ... before at complete crest, and that's assuming we don't get any more rain north of us.

FLOCK: Right. Exactly. And of course, there is rain in the forecast, but just again put that in perspective for our viewers. A little more rain is not going to give us a whole lot more of a rise in this river. It's just going to keep it up longer, right?

SCHAEFER: That's exactly right. In fact, the rain really north of us impacts us more than the rain right around here and south of us as far as St. Louis is concerned, so we probably won't see much of a rise in that after another six inches.

FLOCK: Now, talk to me also about what I am seeing out in the river, because you have a better look at this river maybe than anybody else along the Mississippi with this expansive view. I am seeing a lot of debris out there. That happens when you get big floods, right?

SCHAEFER: You do. That's typical. In fact, that's the danger on river travel now this time, not only high water but the debris that washes down from the tributaries and the other rivers that feed into the Mississippi all up and down the Great Plain states. So that is definitely a hazard.

FLOCK: And it's also shutting some businesses down. You've got a -- what is this over here? I don't know if Rick is able to see that. What is that? That you can take a ride on the river and that sort of thing?

SCHAEFER: A riverboat cruise, that's exactly right.

FLOCK: But not today.

SCHAEFER: He has been shut down for about a week now.

FLOCK: Right. And the last thing before we get away, the arch itself, because folks who don't live here, hear about water lapping at the base of this arch. And just to give a perspective, Rick, I don't know if you can just give folks a perspective of where we are standing here. We've got a ways to go before you hit the arch. Is there any danger? I mean, you've got water you are pumping out. What's the deal?

SCHAEFER: We do. In fact, we have -- the legs of the arch go 60 feet down into the limestone bedrock. So the arch is solid and it's stable, but we do get water seepage from the river through the soil and so on. And we do have pumps in there that work almost constantly when the water gets this high.

FLOCK: Got you. Ken Schaefer, appreciate the time -- thank you, sir.

SCHAEFER: Thank you.

FLOCK: Appreciate it very much. That's the scene here in St. Louis. Obviously a little south of here, places like Crystal City, they've got some difficulty too. But if the water doesn't rise much more, they're probably going to be OK. We've got to watch that rain though.

That's the latest from here -- Daryn, back to you.

KAGAN: Jeff, thank you very much.

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