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

iru VOL. 115, NO. 188 Copyright 1993 WEDNESDAY, JULY 7, 1993 (1) 5-STAR SRsr 6 am EWe), 1 1 li 1 iii. 'ii i Kim ji iih -1 7 I Carnahan Seeks Aid As More I Rain Expected 1 By Stephen Kirkland and Tim O'Neil Of the Post-Dispatch Staff In Missouri, Illinois and five other states, bodies of water large and small are spilling from their banks, taking over towns and fields and forcing families from their homej. Rain-soaked land, unable to absorb any more water, now makes way for swollen rivers, creeks and lakes.

Water also inundated parts of Iowa, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Nebraska and South Dakota. More rain is on the way. On Tuesday, 0.35 inches of rain were recorded at Lambert Field. Nearly an inch was recorded at Spirit of St. -f 1 A' i Ruling Outrages Mother 3 Children Become Wards Of The Court By Tim Poor Of the Post-Dispatch Staff KIRKSVILLE, Mo.

Tony Grissom 16, doesn't want to see his father. Neither does Tony's 14-year-old sister, Rachael. Neither does their sister, Beka, 12. It might be a typical, messy post-divorce squabble but for an extraordinary ruling in May by Adair County Circuit Judge Bruce Normile. Normile made the children wards of the court, placed them in the legal custody of the Missouri Division of Family Services and threatened to have them taken from their home if they don't get counseling and visit their father.

He also found their mother, Candace Losey, in contempt of court, fined her $3,000 and ordered her to pay $3,500 for her ex-husband's attorneys' fees. Losey, 40, didn't help her case with the judge when she placed an ad in the local paper: "WANTED: Men, Women or Children who feel they've been treated unfairly in Judge Bruce Normile's Court." The ad asked that complaints be forwarded to a post office box in Macon, the town where she and the children live. It was published on May 12, the day before the judge ruled on a motion to hold her in contempt of court. See MOTHER, Page 14 Louis Airport in I JTiTii iT rl ill i 1 1 Chesterfield. THE CREST: Flood-watchers predict the crest In St.

Louis 4' 1 -'f. 'tis' 7 Forecasters are predicting heavy rain and damaging winds for today, said a meteorologist at WeatherData a forecasting firm in Wichita, Kan. "A large storm system is developing over western Oklahoma and northwest win oe 42 teet on Tuesday. The record flood here occurred in 1973, when the river crested at 43.23 feet. TO GET HELP: Call your local police department, the Salvation Army or call the Red Cross flood hot line at: 1-800-930-4357.

it" Kansas, and that system should move across Missouri and into Illinois Tuesday night and all day Wednesday," he said. The weather pattern is not expected to change in the next five days, he added. Missouri Gov. Mel Carnahan, tallying the state's multimillion-dollar losses to the raging Mississippi River, spoke by phone with Vice President Al Gore, urging him to speed federal assistance to the flooded region, according to The Associated Press. "We need their help.

We need help, now," Carnahan told reporters Tuesday after viewing the flooding. "The devastation is terrible." The governor traveled by plane, helicopter and patrol car along the soaked waterway and straining levees, shaking his head at the muddy river's surging course. A preliminary state estimate of farm, business and home losses will be compiled Wednesday, "but clearly it will be in the millions," Carnahan said. i if 4 i Flood Fatalities CLOSE 3449.93 DOWN 34.04 2B So far, eight people have died in flood-related accidents In Missouri. Three drowned early Tuesday when they drove into flooded Flat Creek in Cassville, in southwestern Missouri.

A suburban Kansas City woman died in a nine-car, chain-reaction collision Monday when floodwaters ran across Interstate 29 near Rock Port, in northwestern Missouri. And a Kansas couple died Friday when their car was swept See FLOODING, Page 4 4 A mm mmm The Park: It's Where We Play Forest Park has been an important place in the lives of St. Louis-area families for generations. IF Flood Photos: Damage depicted 1C Sandbag Salvation: Items prove priceless 1C Food Warning: Nutritionists urge caution in using canned food exposed to floodwater. 1C Soybeans Soar: Futures jump to four-year high IB Scott DinePost-Dispatch A view of water coursing over the top of a levee Tuesday near Winfield, where a dike broke Saturday.

The Mississippi River has spilled on both sides of locks and dams built by the Army Corps of Engineers to hold it back. Downtown Winfield is still dry, protected by a dike, but Missouri Highway 79 is closed at both ends of town. A Disappointing Summit Ahead? (editorial) On The Urban Battlefield (editorial) 2C View From 1,000 Feet: Mississippi Muscling Up Locks, Dams Helpless As River Runs Free By Tom Uhlenbrock Of the Post-Dispatch Staff From 1,000 feet up in a Cessna 172, the human attempts to corral the Mississippi River and lock up its flood plain looked pitiful, at best. On a flight Tuesday from St. Charles north to Clarksville, one could see that the river's brown water was foamy white where it raced over earthen levees, turning the patchwork of fields planted in soybeans and corn into giant rice paddies.

Farmers lucky enough to have a high piece of ground parked their tractors and other machinery there, and then watched helplessly as the Mississippi at Grafton, a huge triangular lake spread northward, creating islands out of the tracts of woodland. A truck crawled through the middle of Grafton on the Great River Road. Instead of kicking up dust, it left behind a wake. In Missouri, the Cuivre River had no place to go with the load it normally dumps into the Mississippi. The backup spilled over at Old Mon? roe, turning farmland to wetland that provided hunting grounds for white egrets.

i Water still spilled over the spot where the first dike gave way Saturday at Winfield. The down See RIVER, Page 5 would protect what once was the river's meandering territory, people built towns and farms on its banks and bottomland. But as it did some 20 years ago during the Great Flood of 1973, the mighty Mississippi flexed its muscle, and reclaimed its land. The river spread through Mosier and Hamburg on the Illinois side, halting traffic so that those cities from the air looked like picturesque ghost towns. At the confluence of the Illinois River and the water filled one square surrounded by a dike, and spilled over into the next.

At Winfield and Clarksville, the locks and dams built by the Army Corps of Engineers to hold back the river were rendered moot as the Mississippi spilled by on both sides. Barges that normally call the river their highway pulled to the side, fearful of its currents. The water was deserted except for a few small boats that broke the sun's sheen coming off its surface. Confident that the maze of levees and dams Business 1-6B Classified 2-22E Commentary 3C Editorials 2C Everyday 1-10F Movie Timetable 8F NationWorld 9A News Analysis 1C Obituaries 4C People 5A Reviews 7A St. Louis 3A Sports 1-8D Television 7F Trade Imbalance Harms Japan Too, Clinton Says Remarks Underscore Tension As Talks Open Chance Of Storms Metro clinic.

FORECAST: Today: Mostly cloudy; storms possible. High 88. Variable cloudiness tonight Low 72. Thursday: Chance of storms. High 89.

Other Weather, 2A 7 "ill Susan B. Anthony dollars Susan B. Anthony Coin Rides Back In On A Rail By Virgil Tipton Of the Post-Dispatch Staff Behind the counter at McDonald's, Shai Key picked up the coin her customer had plunked down, and she examined it, head, tail, head, tail. Finally, she held it out with a perplexed expression, as if the customer were trying to buy french fries with a ruble. "What's this?" she asked.

Welcome back, Susan B. Anthony. The Susan B. Anthony dollar, the New Coke of coins, is coming back to St. Louis, and it's coming by the thousands.

The area's transit agency has imported 60,000 Susan B. Anthonys from Memphis to stock ticket-See COINS, Page I i AP TOKYO (AP) Leaders of the industrialized world searched Wednesday for a breakthrough in stalled 'trade negotiations as President Bill Clinton bluntly warned Japan that its huge trade surplus has "fueled resentment" among American workers and businesses. Just hours before the opening of the annual seven-nation economic summit meeting, Clinton said Japan's persistent trade imbalance "has not just hurt American workers and businesses, it has hurt Japanese people." He said they were paying twice as much as they should for food because of trade restrictions. Clinton's remarks in a speech to students at Waseda University underscored bitter economic tension between the United States and Japan. Clinton and Prime Minister Kiichi World leaders must sell results to rest of the world 1 2A U.S.

relations with Japan are bad, many Japanese say 12A Miyazawa said Tuesday they were committed to reaching an agreement to reduce trade friction. Treasury Secretary Lloyd Bentsen expressed doubts about reaching any accord to redefine the economic relationship between the two countries. "I don't think it is going to be easy," he said. The 19th annual summit of leading industrialized nations the United States, Canada, Britain, France, Germany, Italy and Japan was opening amid modest expectations because of the political shakiness of the leaders and the weakness of their economies. See SUMMIT, Page 12 POST-DISPATCH WEATHcHBIHU he 8 pat, orr Japanese Prime Minister Kiichi Miyazawa and President Bill Clinton in the prime minister's garden in Tokyo on Tuesday following Clinton's arrival for the Group of Seven economic summit.

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