Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1952-04-18
Omaha Winninq
Battle 10 Hold
River in Check
bikes Still Holding
As Missouri Crests at
30.24-foot Level
By the Associated Press

OMAHA. Nebr., April 18.-The
Missouri River threw its worst al
Omaha and Council Bluffs today
with an army of workers still win
ming the battle to hold the great
river in its Strait-jacket of bikes
River forecasts said the Mis-
souri, is at cresting stage and will
continue to crest all day.
At $50 am. the level was 1924
feet, compared with the flood
stage of 10. Some minor rising
and falling will occur before the
level begins to drop some "a hours
hence, the Weather Bureau said.
The predicted high had been
Bis feet. But at this near-phe-
nomenal level even the action of
the wind can raise or lower the
gauge readings by foot or more.
The critical hours began before
dawn when the slow-moving flood
crest began surging into the
7-mile-long funnel of sodden dikes
protecting the lowlands of the
twin cities of Omaha and Council
Bluffs, Iowa.
Next 48 Hours Critical.
The next 48 hours may deter
mine whether the tremendous
water pressures will burst through
levees and cause more suffering
and damage.
All night long soldiers and CT
william workers-more than $4,000
of them-toiled under foodlights
on the bikes here and on leveeS
downstream, where the rising
waters are expected to smash
through almost every farm dixie
all the way to Kansas City.
Doctors, lawyers, business ex-
ecutives. students. newspapermen
and other volunteers took their
turn heaving sandbags on the
bikes to strengthen them against
the most awesome floods the Mis-
souri, Valley has ever known.
The great battle was to get the
crest of the river safely past the
narrow Omaha channel, through
which the water is flowing at the
fantastic rate of 286 billion GAL
Ions per day.
North of Omaha, the Missouri
sprawls across the farm land for
as much as Is miles. Little
towns are inundated and farm
buildings stand with only their
roofs showing in the vast and
lonely wilderness from which all
living things have fled.
Channel Only 1000 Feet Wide.
For so miles upstream, the river
averages 10 miles in width-or
$4,000 feet. But in the narrowest
part of the Omaha Council Bluffs
channel the funnel is only 1900
feet wide. And the tide must be
passed through this slender bot
tleneck before the danger is past.
The river crest is monStrous,
creeping thing that moves slowly
with tremendous power. It strained
against the bikes here with a
pressure of more than 1850
pounds per square foot.
Through the night workers
rushed sandbags to weak points.
The water crept to the top of the
levees at some points and then
splashed against the splashboards
built to hold back the top few
inches of the rivers crest.
About 300 workers were con-
centrated during the night at a
danger point in the levee guard
ing the Municipal Airport on the
Omaha side of the river.
The airport-which was under
Z feet of water in the 1943 flood
is not in use and commercial
flights are operating from the
field at Offutt Air Force Base.
Form Human Chain.
The workers formed a 700-foot
human chain from the edge of the
northeastern runway, passing
sandbags across the sodden low
lands to build a secondary levee
This dixie was being built around
10-acre area into which water
was seeping from the main dixie.
Water oozed through Soggy
levees and through spongy earth
beneath them as danger signals
Levee patrols sent workers into
these points as quickly as they
were spotted.
The nerve centers in the fight
were command posts set up by
the Army Engineers under the
immediate direction of Brig.
(See FLOODS, Page A-3.)