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CAT Tracks for May 4, 2011
WEDNESDAY 'IN' CAIRO...LOCKOUT CONTINUES |
CAT Tracks Editor's Note:
Before you even say it...
The "news" in the first article below is beyond stale.
I'm sorry...
There is nothing new going on in Cairo...there will be nothing new going on in Cairo today.
Trusting, law-abiding residents who were tricked into leaving by the former Mayor of Cairo are NOT being allowed to return to their homes. Residents who DEFIED the "mandatory order to evacuate" by the former Mayor of Cairo have free "in-out" privileges and are being touted as the true law-abiding residents.
In short...
A typical day in the Cairo neighborhood!
And another thing...
...the sink hole on Commercial in front of the Cairo Public Utility building. Various officials - insiders and outsiders (quickly passing through) - marveling over it...reporters using it as a backdrop for their live stories from "flood ravaged Cairo".
Any long-time resident of Cairo will tell you (if you are able track one down wherever they await in forced exile)...that sink hole is an annual event (for sure any year that the water rises high enough to close the flood gates.) The city gave up long ago with permanent repair...pouring in gravel and whatever once the waters went down, seldom bothering with a permanent-like surface, NEVER a finished surface. Actually, most years the city didn't even bother to fill it...simply put barricades around the site and left it be...another place for weeds to grow - Cairo's famous "Sunken Gardens"...amongst its famous ruins!
One year, the sink hole munched on the northern front corner of the CPU building, causing it to crack and give way. CPU hired somebody to reinforce that immediate sidewalk area and repair the corner (somehow they found the money. Hmmm...maybe that's the real explanation for the high utility rates!)
Anyway...
The street itself was left unattended.
Sink hole, shmink hole.
It ain't a big deal...
As I look back on the soap opera history of the City of Cairo, I wonder...
Did William Shakespeare once reside in Cairo?
Certainly, one of Shakespeare's most famous characters, MacBeth (who knew a thing or two about tragedies, albeit of a lesser magnitude than the City of Cairo) would seem to be familiar with the way we were, the way we be, the way we are forever doomed to be.
From MacBeth's soliloquy (Act 5, Scene 5):
Yes, I know, I know...
I did say last night that I was going to bite my tongue until sundown today.
Guess I lied...
As they say, nature (and CAT Tracks) abhors a void.
And the bright side...
I'll just add that to my resumé. Maybe that'll make me qualified to run for public office now!
From the Southern Illinoisan...
Levee blast eases threat on Cairo
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS AND THE SOUTHERN
CAIRO - The dramatic, late-night demolition of a huge earthen levee sent chocolate-colored floodwaters pouring onto thousands of acres of Missouri farmland Tuesday, easing the threat to Cairo being menaced by the Mississippi River.
But the blast near Cairo did nothing to ease the risk of more trouble downstream, where the mighty river is expected to rise to its highest levels since the 1920s in some parts of Tennessee, Mississippi and Louisiana.
"We're making a lot of unfortunate history here in Mississippi in April and May," said Jeff Rent, a spokesman for the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency. "We had the historic tornados, and now this could be a historic event."
The Army Corps of Engineers was considering making similar use of other "floodways" - enormous basins surrounded by giant levees that can be opened to divert floodwaters.
A staccato series of explosions lit up the night sky Monday over the Mississippi with orange flashes and opened a massive hole in the Birds Point levee. A wall of water up to 15 feet high swiftly filled corn, soybean and wheat fields in southeast Missouri.
Upstream at Cairo, which sits precariously at the confluence of the swollen Mississippi and Ohio rivers, preliminary readings suggested the explosion worked.
Still, the city announced about 5 p.m. Tuesday it would not yet lift the mandatory evacuation.
"We are in the process of making the city safe for our residents to be able to return," the city said in a news release. "All professional personnel of the state and local levels are working toward this goal to ensure that all the residents are able to return to some level of normalcy."
Those residents who did remain in the city limits and were properly identified will be allowed to exit and re-enter the city with proper identification.
U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Springfield, released the following statement:
"While breaching the levee at Birds Point has relieved pressure an lowered water levels, Cairo and other towns along the Ohio River are not out of the woods yet. Dangerous sand boils and weakened levees are being monitored around the clock by the Army Corps of Engineers and Illinois Emergency Agency.
"At the same time, roughly 500 National Guard troops have joined hundreds of local residents in the effort to beat back the floodwaters. I told everyone who participated in today's (conference) call that I stand ready to help in any way I can in Illinois and in Washington over the next few days, weeks and months."
U.S. Sen. Mark Kirk, R-Highland Park, took a helicopter tour of Southern Illinois on Tuesday before meeting with officials in Cairo.
"The town of Cairo has been inundated with so much water there's a sink hole in the middle of Commercial Street," Kirk said before meeting at Cairo City Hall with newly elected mayor Tyrone Coleman, who was sworn into office Monday night.
Outgoing mayor Judson Childs had issued a mandatory-evacuation order last weekend as rain threatened to spill over the banks of the Ohio River and flood hundreds of homes and local businesses.
Sen. Kirk applauded the flood-protection efforts.
State Sen. Gary Forby, D-Benton, said he remained cautiously optimistic about the city of Cairo's future after the Army Corps of Engineers followed through with their plans to blast the Birds Point levee.
"After everything that we've been through this past week, it's nice to see that action was finally taken to prevent further devastation in Cairo and the surrounding areas," Forby said. "Now, more than ever, the people of Southern Illinois need to come together to help the families affected by the flood."
- Jim Salter and Jim Suhr of The Associated and Mark Fitton of The Southern Illinoisan contributed to t his report.
From the KFVS TV Channel 12 Website...
Cairo evacuees wait to return home
Posted: May 04, 2011 1:17 PM CDT
By Christy Hendricks
Cairo, Ill. evacuees waited to return home Wednesday as Missouri residents waited for the third levee blast at the New Madrid Floodway.
More than 130 people are taking shelter at Shawnee Community College in Ullin, Ill. Many of those people are from Cairo.
The Army Corps of Engineers intentionally flooded more than 130,000 acres of farmland in Mississippi and New Madrid counties to relief pressure on river towns like Cairo.
Since the first two blasts, river levels have dropped from 61.72 feet on May 2 to 59.8 feet as of noon Wednesday. The third and final blast was delayed until Wednesday night.
Many residents of Cairo at the shelter say they are happy with the decision to break the levee.
"I'm going to be happy when it's over," said Taleka Young of Cairo. "When I go home, I'm going to be happy when I go home. Ain't going to be no different feeling. Yes, I'm home. Yes, I'm home."
From the Southeast Missourian...
Corps now expects to breach at 8 or 9 p.m.
Wednesday, May 4, 2011 ~ Updated 1:59 PM
Southeast Missourian
The Army Corps of Engineers has updated its timetable for the third levee breach in the Birds Point-New Madrid Floodway.
The corps said in a news release just before 2 p.m. that the third and final blast to open a hole in the levee, this one near New Madrid, Mo., will take place "at approximately 8 to 9 p.m. tonight."
Earlier in the day the corps had said detonation couldn't take place before 8 or 9 p.m., but didn't say if that would be the time frame for the blast to open an outflow crevasse in the river levee. It's the third part of a plan to flood 130,000 acres of mainly farmland in Mississippi County to relieve river levels upstream.
On Monday night the corps opened an inflow crevasse in the levee at Birds Point, followed by the opening of one of two outflow crevasses Tuesday afternoon.
The third blast was expected to happen earlier, but was delayed due to the need to acquire more explosives after two much explosive material was used in the first two blasts.
Additional explosives have been acquired from a vendor in Marion, Ill., corps spokesman Jim Pogue said Wednesday morning.
The Ohio River at Cairo, Ill., was at 59.8 feet at noon today, down from its historic crest of 61.72 feet at 10 p.m. Monday before the effects of the first levee blast were felt.
The Mississippi River at Cape Girardeau was at 44.21 feet at noon Wednesday, down from its crest of 46.28 feet Monday. The record at Cape Girardeau is 48.5 feet.
From the KFVS TV Channel 12 Website...
Corps: No blast Wednesday night "due to logistical difficulties"
Posted: May 02, 2011 5:27 PM CDT
By Christy Hendricks
"Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow,
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day
To the last syllable of recorded time,
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!
Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage
And then is heard no more: it is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing."
Posted: Wednesday, May 4, 2011 1:00 am
Updated: May 04, 2011 7:54 PM CDT
