By EDWARD HUSAR

Herald-Whig Staff Writer

As a 31.9-foot Mississippi River crest continues barreling toward Quincy for a scheduled Friday arrival, volunteers throughout the region are working long hours to bolster levees in an effort to protect riverside communities, safeguard public water supplies and keep open bridges and roads.

About 200 National Guard troops spend most of Sunday helping to build up the Sny Island Drainage District's 54 miles of levees, and another 100 troops were expected to arrive in Quincy today to help fill sandbags at the community's sandbagging operation at the Oakley-Lindsay Center.

Mayor John Spring said more than 3,000 volunteers so far have filled about a quarter-million sandbags that are being dispatched wherever needed in the Tri-State area.

While many sandbags were sent initially to the city's water filtration plant, which is now protected against floodwater up to a 35-foot level, most of the bags today were being dispatched across the river to the Fabius River Drainage District. The Fabius is fighting to build up and stabilize a system of levees that provide key protection for the approach to Quincy Bayview Bridge, dozens of West Quincy businesses and more than 14,000 acres of farmland.

Spring said from all reports he has heard, the Fabius levees appear to be in good shape. "We feel very good about our bridge," he said.

While Quincy Memorial Bridge and the Champ Clark Bridge in Louisiana, Mo., were closed over the weekend because of high water, workers are struggling to keep the Keokuk, Iowa, bridge open. The bridge was closed a couple of times over the weekend for sandbagging work, and efforts are under way now to keep that bridge in operation.

The approach to Hannibal's bridges lies within the Sny district, where considerable work has been under way to shore up levees.

"We're feeling real good about things. We're in good shape, getting better every day," said Mike Reed, superintendent. "Our pushup is progressing. Our main pushup is in the south end of the district below U.S. 54."

Reed said volunteers, aided by the National Guard troops, are scrambling to bolster 54 miles of levees to protect against an a crest of 31.5 feet on the Hannibal, Mo., gauge that's expected to arrive Friday.

"We've got about 60 bulldozers on the levee right now and a few trackhoes," Reed said.

Some of the bulldozers are working around-the-clock, and the district's office in New Canton also is operating on a 24-hour basis.

"Our volunteers are really starting to show up," Reed said.

"We've got a real good sandbagging crew of volunteers in Hull at Western grade school, another group helping fill sandbags in New Canton at the old grade school. Folks in Pleasant Hill are working real hard filling sandbags at the fairgrounds. The Pittsfield work camp is filling (sandbags) 24/7. We're moving sandbags out of the work camp and distributing throughout the district for laying plastic. We have four areas where sandbags are being filled. Also, the general public, just outside the work camp area, has a voluntary sandbag operation. It's going pretty well."

Quincy's sandbagging operation has been bustling since it opened Friday. Spring said he has been overwhelmed and heartened by the volunteer turnout.

"It's been unbelievable," he said. "This is the greatest community in the world. People from all walks of life and all social-economic backgrounds have been coming out. It's just been terrific."

Spring said teams of volunteers have even been arriving from such places as Macomb, Kansas City and even Cedar Rapids, Iowa, which was engulfed by floodwater last week. Spring said the Cedar Rapids volunteers said they could do no more to help their own community, so they came to Quincy to pitch in.

Even a group from England, in town for a wedding, rolled up their sleeves and started filling sandbags, Spring said. About 100 Amish residents showed up Monday morning.

The sandbagging operation will continue each day this week "as long as there's a request for bags," Spring said.

He said the need for more volunteer help remains strong.

The sandbagging continues each day until 10 p.m., but volunteers are welcome to keep filling bags past that time if they wish. "And some have," Spring said.

Anyone needing sandbags, or anyone seeking information about the sandbagging operation, is asked to call 242-3703 or 242-3739.

As the river keeps rising, Quincy's riverfront parks are gradually disappearing. Clat Adams Bicentennial Park along the riverfront, for example, was covered with water Sunday and was attracting large crowds of onlookers to see the unusual sight.

Elsewhere in the region, sandbagging operations reportedly have ceased in Alexandria, Mo. and residents are being urged to evacuate their homes.

Deborah Gertz Husar contributed to this report.