St. Louis Post-Dispatch from St. Louis, Missouri • Page 1

1 Cubs' Hibbard Cuffs Cards Chicago pitcher Greg Hibbard's first major-league hit drives in the winning run as the Cubs edge the Cardinals 2-1 in the rubber game of a three-game series 1C EVERYDAY A Spot For Wild-Eyed Nature Buffsip LOCAL Car Dealers, Mechanics Settle ib BUSINESS PLUS Fresh Idea To Keep Tomatoes 12BP Couch Potatoes Go Au Gratin Television offers a range of quality in cooking shows. Our reviewer watched for hours so you won't have to. FOOD foilHlA i VOL 115. NO. 221 MONDAY, AUGUST 9, 1993 50 (2) 5-STAR Copyright 1993 jf mmu J.

ft Water Drops A Foot Here In 24 Hours By Tim Poor Of the Post-Dispatch Staff On Sunday, the crest of the Great Flood of '93 swept past Cape Girardeau, past Cairo, 111., and into history. "The worst is over," said Maj. Randall Carden, a spokesman for the Army Corps of Engineers. That's not to say the flood is finished. The Mississippi and Missouri rivers are expected to be above flood levels for weeks, continuing to pressure weakened levees, displace people and threaten farmland.

But when the highest water passed Cairo, where the Ohio River joins the Mississippi, the threat of flooding passed also. Past that point, the Mississippi's channel gets so much wider and deeper that it can accept two to three times as much water as it can upriver. By late Sunday afternoon, Cape Girardeau had survived the crest of 47.9 feet without major incident, though residents remained nervous. The water level was well below the 1.25-mile concrete wall that protects the business district to a river level of 54 feet. "We Love Our Flood Wall," read a makeshift sign taped to the clock pedestal in the middle of Main Street.

See FLOOD, Page 9 Stages along rivers in Missouri and Illinois 8A Chesterfield flood draws help from Indianapolis and Virginia Man and companion camp on his land after flood destroys farm 1B Flood insurance story of man who has it and neighbor who doesn't 1B Odell Mitchell Jr.Post-Dispatch Kelly and David Whiten on Sunday inspecting damage to their basement ceiling, which fell when River Des Peres floodwater receded from their home. They live in the 3700 block of Carondelet Boulevard in south St. Louis. Town Moves To High Ground Attack Kills 4 Americans In Somalia Clinton Promises Action After Ambush Of Convoy Compiled From News Services WASHINGTON President Bill Clinton promised Sunday to take "appropriate action" after Somali gunmen ambushed a U.N. peacekeepers' convoy and killed four Americans the heaviest loss of U.S.

life since American troops landed in Somalia in December. Reacting as he left church in Washington, Clinton condemned the attack, saying, "We will do everything we can to find out who was responsible and take appropriate action." The president said that the United States was consulting with its U.N. allies but that it had yet to determine who was behind the attack. Both Clinton and Vice President Al Gore defended the U.S. mission in Somalia.

It began in December as a unilateral humanitarian venture and in May became part of a U.N. operation to ensure that food and medicine reach the starving in the East African nation. Senate Minority Leader Bob Dole of Kansas said the United States should rethink its role in the strife-torn African nation, but House Speaker Thomas S. Foley, said the nation should take strong steps against Mohamed Farrah Aidid, the Somalian warlord suspected of masterminding the ambush. Dole predicted that congressional pressure for a U.S.

withdrawal would build in the coming days. The attack took place Sunday morning in the southern part of Mogadishu, the Somalian capital, when a land mine blew apart a U.S. military vehicle. Moments after the Humvee all-purpose vehicle was mangled by the blast, soldiers following behind were pinned down by intense gunfire. None of the attackers was hit by the return fire.

It was the third ambush of U.N. forces since Wednesday and underscored the inability of foreign forces to control the clan militiamen who drove Somalia into anarchy. Two Americans were injured in a land mine blast See SOMALIA, Page 5 Cuts Considered For Medicare, Social Security Curbs Called 'Reasonable Thing' Compiled From News Services WASHINGTON With a deficit-reduction package approved, the Clinton administration and congressional Democrats promised Sunday to push for additional spending cuts later this year, including a new look at Social Security and Medicare programs. Vice President Al Gore said the administration planned to submit additional budget cuts to Congress in October, and Sen. Bob Kerrey, said he would push for curbs on cost-of-living increases for Social Security recipients.

Some curb on Social Security spending such as limiting annual increases to a percentage below inflation is "a reasonable thing to consider," Kerrey said on NBC's "Meet the Press." Kerrey, who withheld support for President Bill Clinton's deficit-reduction package until the final hour last week, because of misgivings about a lack of spending cuts, suggested that tinkering with Social Security might be acceptable if Congress sets an example by cutting its own pay and budget. Although Gore did not embrace Kerrey's proposal, he conceded on ABC's "This Week With David Brinklev" See BUDGET, Page 4 Tougher fight expected on health-care plan 1B By William Allen Post-Dispatch Science Writer SOLDIERS GROVE, Wis. This is the story of a little town that moved out of the flood plain. Soldiers Grove, population 564, was once nestled in a horseshoe bend of the Kickapoo River in southwestern Wisconsin, about 17 miles east of the Mississippi River. In the mid-1970s, residents and merchants, tired of the periodic floods, began talking about moving to higher ground.

Then came the flood of July 1978. In Residents Packed Up, Wouldn't Pack It In minutes it washed over the town and cut off the municipal water supply for days. Water ran six feet deep through Some buildings, leaving behind a foot or more of mud. "That was the clincher," said Ed Herbst, a long-time resident. "It was the worst we ever had." After the flood, Soldiers Grove faced the same problems now faced by many towns in Missouri and Illinois: damage to homes, businesses and factories; rescue and relief costs; tedious cleanup and a linge ring fear of flooding.

The people of Soldiers Grove moved their entire central business district and many homes a half-mile south to higher ground. The federal government picked up about 60 percent of the tab. People in other flood-ravaged towns have moved out of harm's way before. What See TOWN, Page 6 The Defiant One: Flood-Weary Man Spoke For Midwest By Charlotte Grimes Post-Dispatch Washington Bureau "NO FEAR" As big and bold as white sandbags and one man's labor could make it, the message gleamed atop the roof of a cedar-frame house near St. Peters.

Gray-green water, the elemental power of the mighty Mississippi, surrounded the small house. Soon, surely, the river would tighten its grasp and crush house, man and the spirit that dared spell out such defiance. The moment and the message were frozen in time by Post-Dispatch photographer Sam Leone, whose image flashed around the world. In Chicago, in California, in London, those two words summed up how Midwestern-ers were meeting their trial by water in the summer of 1993. Meet the man behind the message: Marty Sontheimer.

Thirty years old, C-foot-lVfe, 180 pounds. Blondish hair framing brown eyes set in a square-jawed, hand-See SONTHEIMER, Page 9 Karen EisnoutPost-Dispatcn Marty Sontheimer standing outside his home near St. Peters with his rooftop response to this year's flooding. "I was just kinda telling everybody, 'Hey, don't he said. Bret's Intensity Hits Venezuela By Surprise WEATHER Partly Sunny It's In The bko Compiled From News Services CARACAS, Venezuela Tropical storm Bret lashed the Caribbean coast with unexpected fury Sunday, triggering mudslides and floods that killed at least 99 people in shantytowns around Caracas.

Enrique Aponte, director of a morgue in the capital of Caracas, said most of the dead were children who suffocated when their homes collapsed. More than 500 people were injured and 5,000 left homeless, officials said. In Colombia, a woman was electrocuted and her husband and child severely burnt when wind hurled an electrical wire and pole into their house in Maicao, near the Venezuelan border. Bret had been expected to pass relatively harmlessly along Venezuela's northern coast; The storm had caused only minor problems in passing over Trinidad and Tobago. Some precautions were taken.

Fishing boats See STORM, Page 5 Largest earthquake in years shakes Guam, fracturing buildings but causing few injuries. 3A Wind and rain ripped roofs from houses, sent others tumbling down mountains in landslides, toppled trees and knocked over concrete walls. "We never expected a tragedy of this magnitude," Mayor Aristobulo Isturiz said. "A lot of people still are buried." INDEX Business Plus 1-24 BP Classified 8-13B, 7-11C Commentary 7B Editorials 6B Everyday 1-8D News Analysis 5B Obituaries 4B Reviews 4B St. Louis IB Sports 1-6C Television 6D Weather 14B EDITORIAL PAGE FORECAST Today Partly sunny and mild.

High 88. Fair to partly cloudy tonight. Low 72. Tuesday Mostly sunny and warmer. High 91.

Other Weather, 14B Tiny Bosnian Life Flickers Under Weight Of Bureaucracy POST-DISPATCH WEATHERBIRD nta pat, otr Questions About Chesterfield Lake Oregon's Promising Health Reforms Compiled From News Services SARAJEVO, Bosnia Irma's shoulder is the color of milk. It is sharp because she is skinny, and it looks a little awkward poking out from the sheets of her hospital bed. Suffering from shrapnel wounds in her back, stomach and spinal cord, her right arm thrashes. Her head is tilted against the back of her neck, locked in a contorting cramp. "My head hurts," she gurgles between moans A senior U.N.

official in Sarajevo said, "Everybody is passing the buck. No one wants to make a decision to save a life." Irma was severely wounded July 30 by a Serbian mortar bomb that killed her 30-year-old mother, Elvira Hadzimuratovic. She has abdominal, spinal and head injuries that her doctor said may have caused either meningitis or brain damage. See CHILD, Page 5 Serbs promise once again to withdraw from two mountains overlooking Sarajevo 5A that sound bizarre coming from the mouth of a 5-year-old girl. Her doctor is fighting U.N.

rules on emergency airlifts out of Sarajevo. "She is a very simple case," said her surgeon, Edo Jaganjac. "She 'vill simply die here and survive abroad." ll ill ijlSffj, 6B.