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

Chase Bs On For 'Fugitive' The 1960s series "The Fugitive" is back, in the form of a movie, with Harrison Ford as the man on the run and Tommy Lee Jones as his pursuer EVERYDAY IE SPORTS Cards Blitz Marlins, 16-6 id LOCAL Strassenfest Starts 3-Day Frolic ib NATION Gunman Terrorizes Courthouse 3A Air Fares Zoom Lower Airlines, desperate to fill seats this fall, have cut fares by up to 35 percent even for Thanksgiving holiday travel. BUSINESS 9D if lax 5 0 FRIDAY, AUGUST 6, 1993 I VOL. 115, NO. 218 Copyright 1993 5-STAR 50CI (1 ro)nnjJl Soy L2HUKUJ was close, but the mandate is clear." He pledged additional steps to reduce the deficit a gesture to the conservative Democrats who gave grudging support in the House, and to uncommitted Democratic Sen. Bob Kerrey, holder of the decisive vote in the Senate.

"I look forward to continuing the battle tomorrow," Clinton said. Senate leaders were expected to begin debate on the measure almost immediately. Vice President Al Gore said the outcome might be a tie which he would break in Compiled From News Services WASHINGTON House Democrats squeaked President Bill Clinton's budget past unified Republican opposition Thursday night, setting up a climactic Senate showdown on the plan that targets the rich and asks middle-income Americans for an extra dime a day. The vote was 218-216 and came during a suspenseful roll call in which the measure stalled for several minutes just shy of a majority. Clinton swiftly hailed the vote, saying, "The margin favor of the plan.

The measure, with claimed a saving in the deficit of $496 billion over five years, is the centerpiece of the Clinton's first year in office, and the stakes were evident in a daylong debate in the House. Democrats painted the bill as an important effort to remove the "dagger pointed at our economic heart" a deficit threatening to spiral out of control. "Tonight is the time to decide, tonight is the time for courage," declared Speaker Thomas S. Foley, D-Wash. In deference to Democrats who seek additional spending cuts, he said the measure was merely the beginning of a campaign to cut spending.

At a news briefing, Foley and Majority Leader Richard A. Gephardt, D-Mo. promised that when the House returns from its summer break in September, they would schedule votes on a balanced-budget amendment to the Constitution and on a bill that more effectively enforces spending slowdowns on entitlement programs such as See BUDGET, Page 7 Awash: si Streets Receding Rivers Leave An Affront To The Nose By Virgil Tipton and Tom Uhlenbrock Of the Post-Dispatch Staff For the third straight day, both the Mississippi River at St. Louis and the Missouri River at St. Charles edged downward a few inches on Thursday, sliding away from roads and homes that had been awash for almost a week.

"We've got dead fish on the streets and a lot of debris," said Bellefontaine Neighbors Mayor Marty Rudloff. "And it's starting to smell really, really bad." In Prairie du Rocher, 111., some of the water sloshing through a 20-mile valley north of town drained into the Mississippi, proving that the flood fighters' gamble to keep the town dry had worked. In south St. Louis, petroleum-fire experts from Texas warily prepared to bleed explosive gas from five leaking propane tanks at the foot of South Broadway. Smoking was banned.

In the River Des Peres neighborhood, city officials let some residents who had been evacuated because of the flood return to their homes. The Mississippi rolled by St. Louis at 47.3 feet, more than 2 feet lower than the high point of 49.43 feet on Sunday. The Missouri passed St. Charles at 38 feet, 1.6 feet lower than the crest on Monday.

After the Mississippi hit its crest on Sunday, it bobbed up again briefly. Thursday marked the first time that both rivers had dropped for three days in a row. And the river levels slipped lower than forecasters had predicted the day before. "That's what everybody wants it to do," said Jim Brown of the Army Corps of Engineers. "It was going to do it anyway, but we'll take it sooner rather than later." Elsewhere: Leaders in Clark County in far northeastern Missouri pleaded for help from the National Guard not to stop the flood this time but to stop looters.

In Alton and nearby towns, 73,000 people dragged through their fourth day without running water. Water company crews planned to get water flowing in the next few days. But a spokesman for the water company said the water still would be unfit to drink for a while and See RIVERS, Page 10 Jerry Naunheim Jr.Post-Dispatoh Prairie du Rocher, residents and a state trooper watching the sunset Wednesday atop the levee that kept the town dry. Man Survives 21V2 Hours In Mississippi kit I was scared. But then I thought, 'What do I do, sit here three or four days or go 9 GLENN GROTEGEERS, survivor Kevin ManningPost-Dispatch By Carolyn Bower Of the Post-Dispatch Staff After Glenn Grotegeers' boat sank near West Alton, floodwater swept him 20 miles until he pulled himself onto a levee at Lock 27 near the northern edge of St.

Louis. All Grotegeers, 42, needed was an aspirin. "He is lucky he came through alive," said Gary Dyhouse, hydrology section chief for the Army Corps of Engineers. Grotegeers talked about his experience Thursday at a relative's house in Florissant. He wore a sleeveless blue shirt and blue shorts similar to those he wore on his two-day river journey.

The sun had burned and blistered his face, his upper arms and his scalp under his blond hair. Grotegeers' river odyssey began Tuesday. After a breakfast of Rice Krispies, Grotegeers a carpenter, Vietnam veteran and former Boy Scout and lifeguard Tuesday. When he popped to the water's surface, he grabbed another life jacket he saw floating. He swam to a tree and climbed into a fork in it.

He shivered. He vomited river water he had swallowed. He thought about snakes but never saw them. He waited for morning. At daybreak Wednesday, Grotegeers swam hundreds of yards east to a more open area.

He thought someone in a helicopter might see him. "I was scared. But then I thought, 'What do I do, sit here three or four days or go I pushed off." He found a wooden platform in some trees and kicked it out. Holding it, Grotegeers kicked his feet and headed toward Wood River and Sauget. But he feared the swift current would push him away from land in Illinois.

He turned south and tried unsuccessfully to swim toward the Spanish Lake area of northern St. Louis County. He abandoned the wooden platform, which had become more anchor than aid. He See SURVIVOR, Page 10 Flood Snapshot: Residents of Deerfield Village Mobile Home Park in St. Charles share a soggy bond 8A Dry Alton: Life without water service.

9A Propane Case: Two homeowners forced to evacuate sue Phillips Pipeline Co 10A River Des Peres: Some refugees can go home 10A Flood Relief: Congress expected to approve $5.8 billion package today 5B Flood Study: House committee approves Gephardt's request for flood-control review 5B 250-gallon tank roped to his boat. Then he saw a tree surge. The tree smashed head-on into the boat. The boat sank. "The life jackets saved me," Grotegeers said.

He lifted one arm and then another to show where the jackets had rubbed his armpits as raw as hamburger. "I never used to wear a life jacket. I was always too macho." Rough water convinced him to do so went by johnboat to his house to tear out some flooded carpet. From his boat, Grotegeers saw two heating oil tanks lodged near some trees. The tanks belonged to relatives.

About 2:30 p.m., he steered the boat east of West Alton to try to bring them back. "That was stupid," he said Thursday. "Saving a nickel item is not worth losing a life." About 4:30 p.m., Grotegeers had a Chesterfield Lake' Owners Find Business Stinks WEATHER Morning Showers OFlJXK By Peter Hernon Of the Post-Dispatch Staff Lorie Bugby didn't need the vacuum cleaner tube she had brought along to club snakes when she entered her flooded animal clinic Thursday in what is now called Chesterfield Lake. What she and her son, Dr. Paul Schifano, did need was courage enough not to pass out when they gazed at the damage 12 feet of floodwater had done to their business.

It wasn't easy for the co-owners of the Petropo-lis at 16830 Chesterfield Airport Road as they were ferried through debris-strewn water to recover what they could grab from their two-story building. They knew it was going to be rough when they had to tie their johnboat to the back roof. They entered through a metal fire door on the second floor. The water, still 9 feet deep on the first floor, had receded just enough to let them inside. Their first view from the open door was heartbreaking, the smell indescribable.

"I tried to prepare myself," Bugby said putting a hand to her mouth. "But now that I'nj seeing it, Oh God!" Then the tears came, but not many. They didn't, have time to cry. Bugby and Schifano only had 30 minutes to get out as much equipment as they See RETURN, Page 1 INDEX Business 9-16D Classified 2-22F Commentary 7B Everyday 1-16E Movie Timetable 15E NationWorld 3A News Analysis 5B Obituaries 4B People 2A Reviews 3E.10E Sports 1-8D Television 14E EDITORIAL PAGE FORECAST Today Isolated morning showers. High 78.

Partly cloudy tonight. Low 63. Saturday Fair to partly cloudy. High 80. Other Weather, 8A After Robbery, Gunman Kills Woman Near Arch i POST-DISPATCH WEATnfcHBIHO WQ a PAT Qf-f Knop, 56, the mother of six, died less than an hour later.

St. Louis police immediately set up a squad of 10 investigators to find Knop's killer described by one officer as "unstable-tempered" and probably homeless. "There was no resistance whatsoever," said Capt. Jack Titone, commander of the homicide division. "To shoot somebody after the person has By Kim Bell Of the Post-Dispatch Staff Alice Knop did exactly what police say robbery victims should do.

She gave a gunman money when he demanded it not once, but twice. But the robber didn't stop with the $200 he took, police say. Before he ran, he fired three shots at Knop as she sat in a friend's car early Thursday in a parking garage near the Gateway Arch. Needed: More Public Housing Monetary Diunity cooperated is beyond human belief." Knop, a loan processor who lived in St. PetersV was shot about 1 a.m.

Thursday in the second level of the Bi-State Development Agency Gateway Arch Garage, 100 Washington Avenue. Knop, who was divorced, went to the garage with Vincent Ventimiglia, 58, of Sarasota, tj get a moonlight glimpse of the swollen Mississippi See MURDER, Page 6 I 6B.