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ByJimSalter The Associated Press ST. LOUIS The Missis- sippi River floods more of- ten than it used to, and at higher levels. Richard Knaup thinks he knows why. The veteran emergency management director for southeast Missouri's Cape Girardeau County is fight- ing floods again, just as he did last year, and the year before that, and the year be- fore that. "Prior to levee building, the river was a wild thing and it spread out between the river bluffs," Knaup said Monday. "Now we've tried to tame it. Mother Nature and Old Man River will fight back." The rains that caused this winter's flood, blamed already for 25 deaths and damage to hundreds of homes and businesses, ended a week ago, but the water was still rising Mon- day in southern Missouri and Illinois. The Illinois River, which joins the Mis- sissippi above St. Louis, was expected to reach near-re- cord crests this week be- tween the Illinois towns of Havana and Valley City, cre- ating "a very dangerous sit- uation" as levees there be- come saturated, said Steve Buan, a National Weather Service hydrologist. Several other states along the Mississippi River were still bracing for the crest, which was flowing past Tip- tonville, Tennessee, and ex- pected to reach Memphis on Thursday at 6.5 feet above flood stage. For many in the flood- weary Midwest, fighting the river has become an almost annual event. In Cape Gi- rardeau County, all but five of the 32 highest crests on record have occurred since the record-setting 1993 flood, and four of the top 10 have happened since 2011. So what's going on? Un- usual weather patterns are a symptomofglobalwarming, but experts also blame more immediate developments, including efforts to protect growing towns and cities fromtheriversboththatsus- tain and threaten them. Bob Holmes, a Missouri- based hydrologic engineer for the U.S. Geological Sur- vey, says the Midwest has re- ceived far more rainfall than normal over the past quar- terofacentury,andmoreex- tremerainstorms,suchasthe three-daydownpourDec.26- 28 that dumped 10 inches of rain over much of Missouri and Illinois and caused this latestmess.Buturbansprawl also increases flood risk, he said. "Farm fields will soak up water," Holmes said. "If you pave it with concrete or as- phalt, all of a sudden that is a very efficient conduit right into the streams and you get increased flooding." Bob Criss, an earth and planetary science profes- sor at Washington Univer- sity in St. Louis, also blames urbanization, and says this latest spike of rain wouldn't have caused major flood- ing if the river wasn't con- stricted by levees and flood- walls. Earthen mounds have held back the Mississippi in places since French settlers installed the river's first le- vees in Louisiana in 1717. They spread quickly as riv- erfront communities devel- oped, but floods have con- tinued to pose threats ever since. This was predicted as far back as 1852, when en- gineer Charles Ellet Jr. warned in a report to Con- gress that risks would only increase as "water that was formerly allowed to spread over many thousand square miles of low lands is becom- ing more and more confined to the immediate channel of the river." By 1926, the Mississippi River Commission declared its levee system to be com- plete, and able to "prevent the destructive effects of floods." The claim collapsed less than a year later, when the "Great Mississippi Flood of 1927" devastated much of the Midwest. That calamity led to still- higher barriers as the Flood Control Act of 1928 urged the Army Corps of Engi- neers to develop a system of more levees, spillways and other controls. Flood control took on re- newed urgency after flood- ing in 1993, which the Corps describes as "a hydro-me- teorological event without precedent in modern times on the upper Mississippi." Damage totaled $15 bil- lion as hundreds of levees failed; 50 people died and thousands were evacuated, some for months. The federal govern- ment bought out hun- dreds of homes and busi- nesses, turning floodplains into greenspace through- out the Midwest. But loca- tions deemed too valuable for buyouts are now pro- tected by even-bigger and stronger levees. The Missis- sippi River now has an esti- mated 3,500 miles of levees, ranging from small barriers around farmland to Corps- built structures protecting towns and major cities. Army Corps of Engineers spokesman Rene Poche de- fends the federal system, saying it prevented an esti- mated $230 billion in dam- age in 2011, when the river south of St. Louis experi- enced its worst flooding since 1993. In Cape Girardeau County, Knaup knows that the same system he blames for increased flooding also protects homes and busi- nesses. "I appreciate every levee and floodwall we have," Knaup said. "I'm grateful for them." MIDWEST Le ve es a mo ng p os si bl e ca us e of more frequent flooding FREDZWICKY—THEJOURNALSTARVIAAP Peoria Public Works employee James Abbott checks on the pumps as a sandbag wall built at the Peoria riverfront keeps flood waters from the Illinois River at bay, Monday in Peoria, Ill. A Bahraini protester holds up a picture of Saudi Shiite cleric Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr toward riot police officers in Daih, Bahrain, a largely Shiite suburb of the capital, on Monday. HASAN JAMALI — THE ASSOCIATED PRESS By Jon Gambrell The Associated Press DUBAI, UNITED ARAB EMIR- ATES Allies of Saudi Ara- bia followed the kingdom's lead Monday and scaled back diplomatic ties to Iran after the ransacking of Saudi diplomatic mis- sions in the Islamic Repub- lic, violence sparked by the Saudi execution of a prom- inent Shiite cleric. Sudan and the tiny is- land kingdom of Bahrain said they would sever ties with Iran, as Saudi Arabia did late Sunday. Within hours, the United Arab Emirates announced it would downgrade ties to Tehran to the level of the charge d'affaires, while other nations issued state- ments criticizing Iran. The concerted cam- paign by Sunni-ruled Saudi Arabia highlights the aggressive stance King Salman and his son, Dep- uty Crown Prince Moham- med bin Salman, have ad- opted in confronting Iran, a longtime regional rival. "What we have seen during the last 24 hours is unprecedented... It shows you Saudi Arabia has had enough of Iran and wants to send a message," said Abdulkhaleq Abdullah, a political science professor at Emirates University. "This is the Saudis saying: 'There is no limit to how far we will go.'" The standoff began Sat- urday, when Saudi Ara- bia executed Shiite cleric Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr and 46 others convicted of ter- ror charges — the largest mass execution carried out by the kingdom since 1980. Al-Nimr was a central figure in the Arab Spring- inspired protests by Saudi Arabia's Shiite minority, who long denied advocat- ing violence. News of his execution has sparked Shi- ite protests from Bahrain to Pakistan. In Iran, protesters at- tacked the Saudi Embassy in Tehran and its consul- ate in Mashhad. By late Sunday, Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir announced the kingdom would sever its relations with Iran over the as- saults, giving Iranian dip- lomatic personnel 48 hours to leave his country. On Monday, Saudi Ara- bia's civil aviation author- ity suspended all flights to and from Iran, saying the move was based on the kingdom's cutting of dip- lomatic ties. Iran expressed "regret" over the attacks on the dip- lomatic missions in a let- ter to the United Nations on Monday and vowed to arrest those responsi- ble. In the letter, obtained by The Associated Press, Iran's U.N. envoy Ghola- mali Khoshroo says more than 40 protesters have been arrested and that au- thorities are searching for other suspects. Saudi Arabia and Iran have long vied for influence in the Middle East, with their rivalry deepening fol- lowing the toppling of Sad- damHusseininIraq,which allowed Iran to assert dom- inance there, and the chaos of the Arab Spring, which gave rise to proxy wars in Syria and Yemen. Allies follow Saudis in cutting ties with Iran amid tensions CONCERTED CAMPAIGN Advertisement IfthiswasyourService Directory ad customers would be reading it right now!! Suzy 530-737-5056 Gayla 530-737-5044 For more information Landscape/Fence Steve's Tractor &LandscapeService •FenceBuilding•Landscaping • Trenching • Rototilling • Disking • Mowing • Ridging • Post Hole Digging • Blade Work • Sprinkler Installation • Concrete Work Cont. 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