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U.S. NEWS Thursday 4 april 2019

14-year-old says he 3 Midwest states demand more

is Illinois boy who power over river after floods

went missing in 2011
By MARGERY A. BECK
By COREY WILLIAMS AND Associated Press
CARYN ROUSSEAU COUNCIL BLUFFS, Iowa
A 14-year-old boy who (AP) — Three Midwestern
said he escaped from two Republican governors of
kidnappers in Ohio told states ravaged by recent
authorities he is from Illi- flooding on Wednesday
nois, where he went miss- demanded more authority
ing nearly eight years ago over management of the
when his mother apparent- Missouri River system.
ly took her own life. Following a meeting with
Police in suburban Cincin- the U.S. Army Corps of Engi-
nati’s Sharonville wrote in neers, Iowa Gov. Kim Reyn-
a short incident report that olds, Nebraska Gov. Pete
the teen said Wednesday This undated photo provided Ricketts and Missouri Gov.
morning that he had “just by the Aurora, Ill., Police Mike Parson were critical Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds, left, Nebraska Gov. Pete Ricketts, right,
escaped from two kidnap- Department shows missing of the federal body that and Missouri Gov. Mike Parson, center, participate in a news
pers” he described as white child, Timmothy Pitzen. manages the river, saying it conference in Council Bluffs, Iowa, Wednesday, April 3, 2019.
men with body builder- Associated Press should prioritize flood con- Associated Press
type physiques. They were “We’ve probably had thou- trol over other goals, such said Officials have estimated
in a Ford SUV with Wiscon- sands of tips of him pop- as protecting fish and wild- Asked whether the Corps that the flooding caused
sin license plates and had ping up in different areas,” life habitat. indicated it would or could nearly $1.4 billion in dam-
been staying at a Red Roof Rowley said. “We have no “One thing is clear: Some- cede some river man- age in Nebraska and more
Inn. The boy, who identified idea what we’re driving thing needs to change,” agement decisions to than $1.6 billion in Iowa.
himself as Timmothy Pitzen, down there for. It could be said Parson, who pointed the states, Parson replied, That includes an estimated
told police that after his Pitzen. It could be a hoax.” to increasing damage “Well, they listened.” $1 billion of damage to
escape he “kept running The FBI said in a Wednes- from flooding over the last Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly, a farms in both states, where
across a bridge into” Ken- day afternoon statement decade with no solutions in Democrat, also was sched- flooding destroyed stored
tucky. Timmothy Pitzen was that its offices in Louisville sight. uled to attend but had crops, tore up land and
six when he disappeared in and Cincinnati were work- The governors said they transportation problems equipment and killed live-
2011 after authorities said ing on a missing child inves- plan to work together for and did not make it. stock. Thousands of homes
his mother took her own life tigation with Aurora police that change, even if it The Corps has said it works and businesses have been
in a Rockford, Illinois, hotel. and police departments in means petitioning Con- to balance all its priori- damaged or destroyed in
Police in the Chicago sub- Cincinnati and Newport, gress to give states more ties and that much of the Nebraska alone. The dam-
urb of Aurora said Wednes- Kentucky, and the Hamil- authority in river manage- flooding was well out of its age total is expected to
day afternoon that the ton County Sheriff’s Office ment. control. The agency said grow as more assessments
department is sending two in Ohio. The FBI offered no Ricketts complained that that much of the water that are made.
detectives to the Cincinna- other details. even when funding for re- created the flooding came Kansas and Missouri officials
ti area. Aurora police don’t Sharonville police said on inforcement of levees is from record rains and melt- are still waiting on damage
know if the boy he has any the department’s Face- approved, it’s often years ing snow that flowed over estimates, although Kan-
connection to Pitzen, Au- book page that the infor- before the work is actu- frozen ground and directly sas officials say that state
rora Police Sgt. Bill Rowley mation about the boy’s ally done. In some cases, into the river downstream saw flood damage limited
said. reported escape was re- flooding repeats before of its dams, all while mas- to about 31,000 acres of
Police believe Amy Fry-Pit- ceived by police in Camp- the work even starts. “That sive amounts of water filled mostly farmland and some
zen, 43, picked up her son bell County, Kentucky. permitting process has got Missouri River reservoirs and stored grain. In Missouri, the
from school and took him “The City of Sharonville Po- to be faster,” he said. had to be released. surging river caused doz-
to the zoo and a Wisconsin lice Department, like every Reynolds said the gover- On Wednesday, the Corps ens of levee breaches that
water park before she ap- other police agency in the nors would be presenting a released numbers showing inundated about 168,000
parently killed herself. Her greater Cincinnati area, united front to the federal record March runoff in the acres in Missouri’s two
body was found with her was requested to check government in demanding upper Missouri River Basin hardest-hit counties of Holt
wrists slit on May 15, 2011. their Red Roof Inn hotels re- more authority. above Sioux City, Iowa, of and Atchison.
Fry-Pitzen left a note saying garding this incident,” the “We can’t continue to do 11 million acre feet — near- Officials have said the
her son was fine. Police in- Facebook post read. “To things like build a tempo- ly 4 million acre feet more March floods could be just
vestigating her death said the best of our knowledge, rary levee that would pro- than the previous record of the beginning of a rough
she took steps that suggest we have no information in- tect a community, and 7.3 million set in 1952. The spring, as hefty snowpack
she might have, as she said dicating that the missing ju- after the Corps deems the average March upper ba- in the northern Plains adds
in her note, dropped her venile was ever in the City flood incident over, require sin runoff is 2.9 million acre to already swollen rivers
son off with a friend. of Sharonville.”q them to tear it down,” she feet, the Corps said. and streams. q