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

SPORTS AL Stars Beat NL 9-3 Speeding TWA Takeoff Airline's new chief executive says he will rely on quick decisions, subtlety to keep the troubled airline flying. BUSINESS 1C ID J- rT SPORTS Allison Dies Of Crash Injuries id LOCAL Medicare To Pay For Flu Shots ib Inl In Divorce, Who Pays State College tuition is the latest battleground for divorced couples, who often are coping with lower incomes and skyrocketing college costs EVERYDAY IF ST. 10 posT-asKr VOL. 115, NO. 195; WEDNESDAY, JULY 14, 1993 5-STAR (2) Copyright 1993 (DDaoinro St.

4, Floodwater Smashes Levee In Hannibal By Virgil Tipton Of the Post-Dispatch Staff The Mississippi River's slow-motion disaster rolled toward Hannibal on Tuesday, swallowing more homes in northern Missouri, demolishing another levee and drawing a promise from President Bill Clinton to visit St. Louis on Saturday. From one end of Missouri to the other, and from Minnesota on down, the flood of 1993 wrenched lives and nature out of shape: In Iowa, storms ripped across the state, prompting HlA'I'J'Jhia'l! i warnings ot record floods that have already contaminated Des Moines' water supply. In Hannibal, even before the crest hit, the Missis-sippi blasted through a levee and swamped 9,000 acres of farmland on Tuesday, one day before the river is expected to crest there. In St.

Louis, the head of the Federal DURATION: The crest on the Mississippi River at St. Louis is expected to hit 45 feet on Sunday; the National Weather Service believes the river may need until early August to return to a level below the flood stage of 30 feet. TO CHECK THE WEATHER: Call the National Weather Service at 928-1198. 1 'its" i I I t'" Sam LeonePost-Dispatch Amid the floodwater, sandbag calligraphy tops Martin L. Sontheimer's home Tuesday on Iffrig Road in St.

Charles County. Sontheimer's home is north of Mid Rivers Mall and Interstate 70. Highway Administration said repairs to area roads probably would qualify for federal disaster relief. In Jefferson County, the flood ignited a neighborhood fight over the one remaining road to civilization. In Alton, two women were hospitalized after suffering carbon monoxide poisoning from a pump generator chugging away near a beauty salon.

Meanwhile, a summer thunderstorm whipped through the St. Louis region Tuesday evening with winds up to 35 mph. It caused power outages, dropped up to 2 inches of rain in some areas, and there were reports of half-inch hail at Spirit of St. Louis Airport in Chesterfield. About 5,000 Union Electric Co.

customers lost power See FLOOD, Page 6 Flood Victims Thread Maze Of Aid Agencies By Phil Linsalata and Linda Eardley Of the Post-Dispatch Staff Jesse Kussman, 35, a roofer, lived with his wife and their two girls, Autumn Rose, 4, and Amy, 12, in a wood-frame house they rented on the Meramec River in St. Louis County's southern tip. Now, they live in a camp trailer in the yard of Jesse Kussman's father, the four of them making do. "Our house has a foot of water on the first floor," Jesse Kussman said. "You should see the leeches," his wife added.

"They're us long." The Kussmans came to the Festus Elementary School Tuesday in search of the only relief many flood victims will find in the next few days. See AGENCIES, Page 9 7' Easy Living Goes Down The Drain Residents Of Des Moines Discuss How To Flush On A Water Budget By Kathleen Best Post-Dispatch Washington Bureau DES MOINES, Iowa Guests at the CiVstal Inn, just across the street from Des Moines International Airport, are getting a little something extra when they check in this week: a gallon jug of water and directions on how to fill a poolside bucket. It's the only way in waterless Des Moines to flush the toilet. So far, says hotel worker Joan Stanley, both visitors and natives are taking the hardship with grace and good humor. "You have to make jokes about it or you go berserk," she said.

But flooding rivers, dry taps, intermittent power outages and new thunderstorms rumbling through daily are stretching the patience and ingenuity even of even-tempered Iowans. "People are still in shock," said Mary Riesenberg, 20, as she waited to fill the family cooler at one of dozens of clean water sites set up in parking lots around the city. "Towards the end of the week, they may get a little short-tempered." Des Moines, a city of 250,000 peo, was transformed into a Third World enclave last Sunday, when the raging Raccoon River surged over a levee and drowned the city's water plant under 15 feet of muddy floodwater. City workers, aided by the National Guard, were still I River Rumor: Officials dismiss reports of new Missouri River channel 6A Flood's Toll: Details of damage in Missouri, Illinois and other states 8A Staying Put: Ed and Ruth Macarthy plan to hold out in their sandbagged home from River Des Peres flooding 9A Flood Help: How to get flood help or give it 2B Rail Trouble: Water causes railroad detours, diversions and delays 1C AP Dan Henderson toting containers of drinking water Tuesday after filling them from a container on a parking lot in Des Moines, Iowa. Flooding cut the city's water supply Sunday.

working Tuesday to pump out the plant. But officials said en Thompson, assistant director of one of the dining that pumps and generators will not be ready to start services at Drake University. "We're learning how to get water flowing again until the weekend. And the city won't along with a liter of water a day." have pure, drinkable water for at least a month. And that, she said, means learning how to live without "It's taking a real pioneer spirit" to cope, said Gretch- See WATER, Page 10 WEATHER Civic Progress Flexing Muscles For Tax Hikes Chance Of Storms FORECAST Nor A Dry Hawked $300,000 that the supporters of the tax increase will try to raise for their campaign, organizers say.

That support one of the largest amounts ever committed by Civic Progress members to a city campaign came after a personal appeal by Mayor Freeman Bosley said Civic Progress spokesman Al Keith. Bosley made a presentation to the group's action committee on June 28; the committee voted at that By Jo Mannies Post-Dispatch Political Correspondent Civic Progress, the region's group of top business executives, has agreed to bankroll nearly the entire campaign to win St. Louis voters' approval on Aug. 3 of two proposals to increase the city sales tax. the executives' companies, Civic Progress members plan to donate $275,000 of the meeting to endorse the two sales-tax measures and set a goal of contributing $275,000.

About $100,000 of that amount already has been donated, Kerth said. Business leaders say they have been impressed with what they see as Bosley's pragmatic approach since he took office in April. As an ex officio member of Civic Progress, Bosley has "been an See CAMPAIGN, Page 4 INDEX Business 1-8C Classified 2-28E Commentary 7B Movie Timetable 9F News Analysis 5B Obituaries 4B People 2A Reviews 3B.3F Sports 1-8D Television 7F EDITORIAL PAGE Today Mostly cloudy with a chance of storms. High 88. Rain continuing tonight.

Low 69. Thursday Partly cloudy with a chance of storms. High 88. Other Weather, 88 Doctors Target Youth Violence But Draw Criticism POST-DISPATCH WEATMEHBIHU WEQ Ul PAI. Of- The Sheik Nobody Wants Don't Add To Somalia's Chaos "Kids are killing kids, and we think it's a fact of life in this country," said Rosenberg, the CDC's top expert on violence.

"But people thought smallpox was a fact of life, too, and it's been eradicated from the face of the Earth." But how do doctors stop a teen-age shootout that killed a 13-year-old passer-by as she walked home from an Atlanta library? Or keep a 17-year-old in Kentucky from taking his class hostage and killing a teacher and janitor? Or prevent a 13-year-old boy in Pennsylvania from shooting himself because an official spotted the gun he brought to class? That's what the CDC is spending more than $6 million to learn what puts children at risk and how to lessen the chance they will grab a weapon at the first sign of conflict. "There are things people can do to stop vio- See VIOLENCE, Page 4 ATLANTA (AP) Most doctors only treat victims of the violence that has become epidemic among America's youth. Mark Rosenberg is trying to prevent the bloodshed. He is leading a new public health battle begun recently by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention a radical effort to control youth violence that is drawing criticism from other scientists anrj the gun lobby. Zi 6B 091 1 1 00'.