European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - July 27, 1993, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Tuesday july 27, 1993 Midwest flooding the stars and stripes Page 7 House speaker assails delay of Aid Washington a House speaker Thomas  says it is wrong to hold up a $3 billion financial Aid package for Midwest flood victims Over a debate on How to pay for it. A number of conservative democrats including some from the Midwest joined with republicans on thursday in a vote that resulted in the package being delayed because of disagreement Over whether spend ing should be Cut elsewhere to pay for it or whether the Cost should simply be added to the deficit. I think that s wrong Foley said sunday of efforts to link flood Aid to reductions elsewhere in the budget. Foley appearing on lbs face the nation said the dispute will be settled this week and pledged that Aid to the Midwest will not be blocked. Perhaps we ought to step Back and make a decision How we re going to handle disasters in the future but it s unfair to the people of the Midwest to do it in the Middle of this storm he said. Foley acknowledged that he was very surprised bythe 216-205 vote thursday that Defeated a House democratic leadership proposal to restrict debate and bloc amendments calling for cuts elsewhere in the Federal budget to pay for the Aid. Rep. Newt Gingrich r-ga., appearing on the Sam program said the policy of just adding emergency spending to the National debt is no longer acceptable. If you re for change one of the major changes Inthis City has to be setting priorities and paying for what you re doing and that s a very big dividing line betwee the past and the  Gingrich who holds the no. 2 Republican leadership position in the House As minority whip said that he was committed to passing flood Relief but that the disaster Relief policy was just one More example of Bor rowing on our children borrowing on our grandchildren 7 Gingrich also said members were angry that the com Mittee in charge of making the rules allowed an Amend ment by rep. Maxine Waters a Calif dealing with an unrelated jobs program. There was real outrage that you had a payoff going on involving a member in los Angeles on the backs of the people in the Midwest Gingrich said. Senate minority Leader Robert Dole of Kansas whose state was hard hit by flooding said he supported the administration s View that the Aid docs not need a immediate offset. This is an emergency and it s provided for by Law Dole said on can s news maker sunday. Now that does t mean we can t change that policy maybe next year but How do you do it now levees the first and last defense How levees protect lowlands ii levees earthen dam constructed along riverbanks have guarded  Ere along the Mississippi River since 1718, when the first Levea was built outside new Orleans. Today nearly 3,600 Miles of levee of make the extensively controlled rive system in the world. Concrete flood Wall Earth embankment Cement i Rock fill base of holds Wallin place and Earth is pile behind Wall average River level Earth and Sand levee. Some levees Are 50feet High and 100 feet wide at the base. Borrow or drainage ditch. Fill used to build the levee comes from either Side. Sources Arney corps of engineers the world Book encyclopedia a ban Sipolo worker goes for wild jog after part of levee Breaks Perryville to. A a mis Ville Hospital. Ing River Mississippi River floodwaters flow through a Hole in the Sny Island iii., levee sunday. Near Hannibal mo., flooding the nation s second largest drainage District. Helicon. The ordeal that he went through said. J i i. Niin.1. Tam it tha Riv a Niemi. Who visited the worker in a Rerra Mississippi River levee collapsed without warning Early sunday taking a worker and his truck with it. The army corps of engineers employee ran and tumbled along with a Wall of water and escaped with Only cuts an bruises said Jack Niemi of the corps in St. Louis. He s in remarkably Good shape for. My .,�., a jeers had to evacuate hundreds of people on the Illinois Side of the River. Niemi who visited the worker in a Perry Ville Hospital. Niemi said Harold Smith 52, had been checking a levee South of the tiny town of Belgique. A 300-foot Section suddenly gave Way beneath him dropping his truck 15 feet to 20 feet Down into the breach. The truck was pushed along by the gushing water but Smith was Able to  a window and run about a mile to a Section of the 30-mile levee. Smith was picked up by other corps workers. Curfew imposed in Village stunned by one two punch de Witt neb. A the tornadoes crumpled 20 Grain silos popped windows out of buildings and snapped old Trees near the roots saturday. They knocked out Power throughout town and sent two dozen people into the pub & Skillet s walk in refrigerator for a cramped harrowing half hour. Then came the flood. De Witt a Village of 650 people 75 Miles Southwest of Omaha was under curfew Early monday after it was hit both by the kind of natural disaster for which the Midwest usually is known and by the kind it has be come notorious for this year. Water at least 2 feet deep covered most of the roads in de Witt and All of those leading into town at dusk sunday a fish could be seen finning across one. The dig Blue River was rising slowly Early monday and was expected to Crest during the Day it appeared to be keeping two creeks Turkey and Swan from re ceding much. Two things in a Row but i think we re Lucky said Kerri Garrison the co owner of the pub & Skillet who shepherded at least 25 customers into the walk in refrigerator after Tornado warning sirens sounded. We re All Lucky we have roofs Over our head she said. She recalled the pictures she s seen on to of flooding elsewhere in the Region on some of the sub merged houses All you can see is a roof Garrison said. No serious injuries were reported from tornadoes in Plymouth de Witt Firth and Union