Sandbagging in Rocheport

Precautionary measures to save part of Rocheport, Mo. from the rising floodwaters of the Missouri River began Tuesday. Over 100 volunteers shoveled sand and raised sandbag levees along the Katy Trail and the small Mid-Missouri town’s low-lying homes. Some, familiar with the damage done in the 1993 Flood, began moving their possessions to higher ground.

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Emma Power, far left, and Rocheport mayor Brett Dufur fill bags with sand dumped from a truck Tuesday near the Katy Trail in Rocheport, Mo. About 100 people helped raise a sandbag levee around low-lying private homes and the trail to protect against the rising Missouri River and its tributary, Moniteau Creek.

Volunteers collect empty bags before filling them with sand.

Sandbags are places in trailers and pickup trucks, and sent to the town’s low-lying homes.

Firefighters Michael Hanks, far left, and Marcus Herman instruct a team of volunteers how to build a sandbag levee around Bryan Samuels’ low-lying Rocheport home.

Ryan Stonecipher-Fisher, left, and Jerry Coats, right, heft sandbags with other volunteers yesterday outside Bryan Samuels’ Rocheport home.

Three-foot high waters stains from the 1993 Flood are visible in the garage attached to Bryan Samuels’ home.

Bryan Samuels uses a ladder to elevate stored belongings in his garage in Rocheport, Tuesday, May 8, 2007, as property owner Connie Niederhelman relocates stored items. Three feet of water flooded the same garage in the 1993 Missouri River flood.

Bryan Samuels loads his boat with personal belongings Tuesday, as volunteers construct a sandbag levee around his house, seen in the background. The terrain around his garage was deemed not suitable for sandbags so Samuels began moving items to high ground. What didn’t fit in the boat, Samuels stored in the rafters of the garage.

Volunteers from left, Drew Elmore, Tim Hunn, Sam Bodine, and Jeanne Kukich pile sandbags around Chris McGee’s residence in Rocheport, Mo., Tuesday, May 8, 2007, which overlooks flooded Moniteau Creek.

Volunteers from left, Joanna Reuter, Eric Butler, and Brent Franklin take a break while waiting for another truckload of sandbags to pile around Chris McGee’s residence in Rocheport, Mo., Tuesday, May 8, 2007. Over one hundred volunteers bagged and placed an estimated 20,000 sandbags around Rocheport’s low lying houses near the Katy Trail to help control rising floodwaters from the Missouri River. Floodwaters are expected to rise near 33.5 feet, culminating Friday evening.