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(Photo courtesy LDS Church)
Sam Penrod reporting
The swollen Mississippi River has surged over much of Iowa, Missouri and Illinois; and now, communities downstream are bracing for the worst.
In Burlington, Iowa, cars are covered, houses are swamped, and it could take several days for the water to recede. The Midwest floods are responsible for 24 deaths and nearly 150 injuries. And a 280 miles stretch of the Mississippi is closed to barge traffic.
The failure of a levee in Illinois has aggravated the situation there, and the water keeps getting closer to LDS historic sites. Flood preparations have been underway in Nauvoo, Ill., but the critical concern tonight is 40 miles down the river in Quincy, Ill.
In what is beginning to look like a repeat of the floods of 1993, Missouri and Illinois are dealing with the worst flooding in more than a decade. The Mississippi river is at 15 feet above flood stage in this area of the Midwest.
Today, 130 missionaries for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints joined hundreds of other volunteers to fill sandbags and try to protect Quincy. It is a community that, in 1839, provided refuge for early Latter-day Saints expelled from Missouri-- a place where the Mormon Tabernacle Choir performed in a concert of appreciation in 2002.
The river is also rising in Nauvoo, approaching historic sites of the LDS Church. KSL Chief Editor Bob Brown was in Nauvoo 10 days ago and took photos of sites along the river, including the historic Nauvoo House, the Smith homestead and the Smith Family Cemetery, the location of the grave of LDS founder Joseph Smith. Compare those pictures with photos from Nauvoo circulating on the Internet today, showing the dramatic change in the river's level.
Sandbags already protect those areas thought to be in immediate danger in Nauvoo. The Nauvoo LDS temple is about a mile away from the river, with an elevation rise of 150 feet, so it is not in any flood danger.
A resident of Nauvoo tonight told us the community's biggest concern right now, is for those in the regions that are already under water.
Those who helped in the effort to secure the sites included people working for Nauvoo Restoration Incorporated, missionaries serving in Nauvoo, and members of the BYU Folk Dancers.
E-mail: spenrod@ksl.com
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