Floods damage farms and towns in Midwest

Source: Agencies  |   2008-6-19  |     NEWSPAPER EDITION

FLOODWATERS breached two levees in western Illinois yesterday and threatened more Mississippi River towns in Missouri, offering little reprieve for the United States Midwest.

Much of eastern Iowa was inundated by some of the worst flooding that state has seen in years.

The breaches flooded farmland near the hamlet of Meyer and south of there in the Indian Graves levee district, Adams County Emergency Management Agency spokeswoman Julie Shepard said.

Meyer, a town of 40 to 50 people, had to be evacuated, and authorities patrolled the town yesterday to make sure no one was left behind, she said. Flooding around Meyer could swamp 12,140 hectares, or about 122 square kilometers, in the largely rural area, Shepard said.

Officials monitored levees in other Mississippi River towns in Illinois and Missouri in hopes that they would hold.

Sandbags

In Clarksville, a historic artists' town of 500 near St Louis, National Guard members, inmates and students were sandbagging. Five blocks were already swamped, but volunteers were doing their best to save buildings housing the shops of artisans and craftsmen.

Flooding that began about a week ago in eastern Iowa caused more than US$1.5 billion in damage as it crept south toward the Mississippi.

About 25,000 people in Cedar Rapids were forced from their homes, 19 buildings at the University of Iowa were flooded and water treatment plants in several cities were knocked out.

Authorities rescued people by helicopter, boat and four-wheeler on Tuesday after the river broke through a levee in Gulfport. Later this week, the Mississippi is expected to threaten other communities, leading officials to consider evacuation plans and begin sandbagging.

But officials said the damage could have been worse if the federal government had not purchased low-lying land after historic floods in 1993 that caused US$12 billion in damage.