April 27, 2011

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DUTCHTOWN, Mo. - The Southeast Missouri State soccer team saw firsthand the power of Mother Nature on Wednesday afternoon. They boarded a University shuttle bus that tooked them to the small town of Dutchtown, Mo. (population 100). A town that is fighting rising waters and possible flooding.

Rather than going through their regular spring training session, the team elected to assist in the efforts to save the town just southwest of Cape Girardeau.

With a few of the 36 households in the town already under water, the team joined a handful of students, Dutchtown residents and inmates from the Missouri Department of Corrections in filling sandbags to reinforce a temporary levee built along Highway 74, which cuts across the town.

Tuesday night water rose rapidly in the area, forcing the closure of Highway 25 at Highway 74.

The emergency levee along Highway 74, built to block water from the Diversion Channel, curves around to connect with a second levee the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and Cape Girardeau County Highway Department have raised and reinforced to contain waters coming from Hubble Creek, just west of Highway 25.

By mid-afternoon flood waters had risen to four feet up against the levee.

Despite rainy conditions, the Redhawks continued to fill sandbags on Wednesday before a tornado warning forced the local sheriff to halt operations and sent the team back to Cape Girardeau.

The town will continue their operations again tomorrow as the water level is expected to rise through the week. A shuttle bus will take volunteers from the Show Me Center into Dutchtown at 2:00 and 4:00 p.m. daily.