7/26/93
By: Martha Parsons
Courier-Post Staff Writer

What normally is a 20-minute commute to work from her Quincy, Ill., home to Hannibal took Adrianne Ganieany about five hours Saturday.

The Hannibal Job Service counselor had to drive all the way to St. Louis before she could cross the flooded Mississippi River on the way to her office, where she has been helping flood victims fill out disaster employment claims.

Ganieany is just one of thousands of workers and employers in both states whose lives and businesses have been disrupted by the West Quincy levee rupture Friday night that forced the closing of the Quincy Bayview Bridge. The bridge was the only remaining link between the two states within 100 miles of Hannibal or Quincy.

Instead of continuing that commute, Ganieany, her husband and their 1-year-old daughter will stay with her parents in Center, probably until the end of the month or until the bridge reopens.

"It's kind of crowded," Ganieany said. "We kicked my younger sister out of her bedroom. It's better than nothing."

Commerce officials in both Quincy and Hannibal don't yet know exactly how many workers and employers will be affected by the split, or how much money the split will cost the cities in loss of business. But Jim Mentesti, executive director of the Great River Economic Development Foundation in Quincy, said a meeting of Quincy business leaders and city officials Sunday showed an estimated 1,800 people who work in Quincy live in Missouri, or about 25 percent to 30 percent of the staff of some of the 15 to 20 businesses represented. Also, about eight to 10 Quincy residents own Hannibal businesses," he said.

"It will have a tremendous impact on cost when you consider how far around people are going to have to go," Mentesti said. "It's awfully difficult to make an honest interpretation at this point."

Because the levee break, which was followed by an explosion at a gas station, occurred on a Friday night, many commuters had already returned home for the weekend and were not stranded, he said.

Only four or five extra people added to the numbers staying at the Hannibal Red Cross shelter at the former Hannibal Regional Hospital because they were stranded after the bridge closing, Red Cross Coordinator David Miller said. About 80 people are living in the shelter.

"That might change as people realize that it's too much of a long trip," he said.

The trip will be shortened if the Keokuk, Iowa, bridge reopens as expected today or tomorrow.

Shuttle bus planned
Hannibal Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Nancy Stuenkel said a shuttle bus system between Quincy and Hannibal crossing the river at Burlington, Iowa, will begin running as soon as arrangements are coordinated. The service may begin running by Tuesday or Wednesday, Quincy Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Harry Button said. It would probably stop at Hannibal, Canton and Keokuk.

"The bus service is really sort of a backstop type of operation," he said. "It really is not too convenient."

Instead, Button recommends people carpool. Both chambers offered to help arrange carpools for those who call their offices. The phone number for the Quincy chamber is (217) 222-7980; for the Hannibal Chamber it is (314) 221-1101. A trolley service at the Union Electic dam in Keokuk is also operating.

The chasm means businesses will incur costs for transporting more than employees, Stuenkel said.

"It's more than transporting people, it's getting raw products (across) so they can do business," she said.

Heetco Jet Center in Quincy has been packed with commuters trying to get on one of the company's four small planes that have been flying back and forth between the cities since Saturday morning. Besides workers trying to reach their businesses, the company has flown children returning home from camp, boyfriends going to visit girlfriends and any other situation you can think of, secretary Lora VanHook said. The flights cost $15 one way and $25 round trip.

Flights help those with medical needs

Heetco has also been flying kidney dialysis patients from Missouri to Blessing Hospital in Quincy. There, both the 14th and 11th street branches have also been flying emergency patients and doctors and nurses to and from Culver-Stockton College in Canton to the hospital in a separate helicopter, spokesman Steve Felde said. About 250 of the 1,600-member staff lives in Missouri, he said.

"I answered the phone yesterday when a woman in Shelbina was in labor and needed to get to the hospital," he said. "I put her on the phone with the emergency center ... and they worked out a place to meet with the helicopter."

He did not know how much the leased service will cost the hospital.

Hannibal Regional Hospital has not had to air lift any patients, but is flying staff back and forth between Illinois and Missouri, Marketing Vice President Julie Leverenz said. The hospital has delivered five babies whose mothers normally see physicians in Quincy, she said.

Joyce Sharp, employment security supervisor at the Hannibal Job Service office, said the agency does not know yet how many workers are affected by the bridge closing. The service, which has been swamped with flood victims seeking disaster unemployment aid, has had to handle its own problems of getting employees, such as Ganieany, to the office. In fact, job service employees from other branches have been called in to help with claims here, she said.

"We really haven't talked to a lot of employers yet," she said.