Slow-Moving Disaster Along Mighty Mississippi

Morrison Williamson feels confident the floodwall about 10 feet from the hardware store he manages will save it, even though two rivulets of the swollen Mississippi River sprout from reinforcing timbers on the structure like water from a garden hose. Others in Hickman, a town of about 2,500 in the southwest corner of Kentucky, are keeping their eye on the earthen levee that adjoins the floodwall. About 120 Fulton County jail inmate volunteers dressed in orange or white prisoner uniforms furiously filled sandbags Wednesday.