St. Louis Post-Dispatch from St. Louis, Missouri • Page 35

ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH T. LOUIS Reviews obituaries. 3 11 SECTION SUNDAY, JULY 11, 1993 THE FLOOD OF '93 i v. Billy Knobbe preparing to plop a crawfish in boiling water in the garage of Judi and Pat Weber's farmhouse.

It was all food for a flood-time feast. y. I 1 i Floodwater swirling around the feet of Judi Weber on Highway 94 near Portage des Sioux. Her son, Pat Weber kneels to pick up crawfish on the road for a crawfish boil. Story by Tom Wheatley, Photos by J.B.Forbes Of the Post-Dispatch 777 When you live in the country along a river, you expect to get wet once in a while.

When you live between the two mightiest rivers on the continent, you expect to get really wet. In Portage des Sioux, on arid now partly under the Mississippi River, some 500 river folk may soon be as wet as theyjve ever been. For the third time in 20 years, a big-league Ilood is breaking and entering in St. Charles County. The Mississippi is creeping through their yards and farm fields.

If the Missouri River decides to crash the levees and the party, the water will arrive at a gallop, and Portage des Sioux will be caught in a liquid cross fire. City slickers, landlubbers and outside logicians may have a hard time understanding this. But once again, the residents of Portage des Sioux plan to face a flood, retreat if they have to and return when the water leaves. George "Moe" Boschertaccepts this ebb and overflow as a way of life. "It's a river town," Boschert said.

"When I was a kid, I lived in that river. I'd swim to the other side of the ji- ow you see why we Mississippi and back. My great-great-great-great-uncle on my mother's side came through here with Lewis and Clark." Boschert, who is 48 years old by his count, 54 by estimate of his neighbors, lives in Portage des Sioux but works in St. Charles, selling cars. "Would I ever leave? Not because of the water.

Why do people stay? Beats the hell out of me," he admitted. Judi and Pat Weber, the local garbage collector, live on North Highway 94. In the autumn flood of '86, the live here? You can have a party in five minutes. And if you need help, it's there, too. JACKIE WEBER, Portage des Sioux resident 5 riff; I IK' 1 It if Missouri roared past their house as it met the Mississippi.

"The water's across the road on one side, of us," Judi said Friday night. "It's walking through the fields right now. In a couple of hours, we'll be boxed in." That still left plenty of time for a therapeutic shindig. No Use For Sandbags A couple miles west of Judi's house, where the Mississippi poured across Highway 94, several young adults were catching dinner. Crawfish, flushed out of the woods and the weeds on the south side of the road, were fighting upstream across the pavement toward the cornfields.

"You very seldom see 'em here," said Pat's brother, John Weber, a carpenter, as he stopped his pickup truck. See CRAWFISH, Page 8 Additional stories on the flooding and advisory lists on travel and aid 5-9D and 12D Neighbors gathering in the Webers' tgarage in a rainstorm to eat the crawfish from the mlghway. The storm dumped 1.2 Snches in about 30 Jminutes and made flooding worse. i -vr. v.

i r-r. A i i -'i A A.J -vLv Mi 5 I A i 'j. 1 LEFT: Pat Weber Jr. selecting crawfish for boiling. Billy Knobbe has plucked a steamed crawfish from the pot and is ready to pop it into his mouth.

ABOVE: The uneaten and unboiled crawfish being released in the back yard to return to the river only a few feet away. From left, Craig Vogt, Weber and Kevin Machens..