Flooding forces President Casino to close

KSDK-- One day after a crash involving several coal barges, the rising Mississippi River is back open along the St. Louis waterfront.

But the river remains closed to recreational boats. It is only open to restricted commercial traffic. While at least one large pleasure boat was spotted passing the St. Louis riverfront Sunday, between debris in the rising river, and the speed of the swollen Mississippi carrying a few passing tow boats and barges, it was not hard to tell why the U.S. Coast Guard and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers are keeping a close eye on the river.

"We haven't seen anything out of the norm yet," Alan Dooley, Public Affairs Chief for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers St. Louis District told us Sunday when we asked where there had been any flood-related public safety incidents during this current rise in river levels. "To put this in perspective, the flooding is a few feet lower than what we experienced just last year in the summer of 2008," says Dooley.

The Mississippi in St. Louis is expected to crest at about 5 feet above flood stage on Monday. So far several flood gates have been closed along the St. Louis waterfront, like several along Lenor K. Sullivan Boulevard, where as of Sunday there was water over the roadway in several places. Adding to the challenge on the water in front of downtown St. Louis were two sunken barges Sunday.

Both sand Saturday after a tow boat, pulling 15 barges lost control and struck the McArthur Railroad Bridge (which crosses the Mississippi linking Missouri and Illinois). The Coast Guard says one barge is now deep enough underwater not to be a hazard, but the other is only partially submerged, wrapped around part of the bridge near the Illinois riverbank.

As of Sunday the Coast Guard was broadcasting a warning to mariners about the obstruction. Back on shore there's another more familiar challenge. High water once again closed the President Casino. "This is not normal for us, usually its early in the spring, when we get the melt from the north and the extra rain (that the Casino is forced to closed)," says President Casino Employee Myron Minner. In Minner's nearly 15 years working for the President he's seen high river levels close the casino some 13 different years. "Well we never like to see it get shut down, I mean this is our living, our livelihood. So you know when it gets shut down we have to take maybe vacations or whatever to try to cover for the days we might be off," says Minner.

As for those sunken barges, the Coast Guard expects a salvage crew to arrive on scene around Midnight Monday to work on removing the barges. So far the Coast Guard does not believe the barge crash caused and serious pollution hazard.