WORLD> America
Mississippi overflows levees, crops threatened
(Agencies)
Updated: 2008-06-19 14:42

The slow-rolling disaster, the worst flooding in the Midwest in 15 years, has swamped vast sections of the US farm belt and forced tens of thousands of people from their homes.

The cost of the disaster may end up rivaling that of 1993 Midwest floods that caused more than $20 billion in damage and 48 deaths. This month's flooding has caused few deaths, with Iowa hardest hit. But the damage has yet to be fully assessed.
An aerial photograph shows houses completely submerged by floodwaters from the Mississippi River in Burlington, Iowa, June 18, 2008. The Burlington Hwy 34 Bridge, a major link between Iowa and Illinois, closed due to Mississippi River flooding. The swollen Mississippi River ran over the top of at least 12 more levees on Wednesday, as floodwaters swallowed up more U.S. farmland, adding to billion-dollar losses and feeding global food inflation fears. [Agencies]

The prospects of smaller crops have already jolted commodity markets, food producers and exporters. Chicago Board of Trade corn prices traded at a record $8.07 a bushel.

The floods will mean more food inflation, not only for U.S. consumers, but also for dozens of countries that buy American grain. The United States exports 54 percent of the world's corn, 36 percent of its soybeans and 23 percent of its wheat.

RIVER FLOODING MOVES SOUTH

LeRoy Lippert, chairman of emergency management committee for Des Moines County, Iowa, said volunteers and aid workers in the town of Burlington filled 2.5 million sandbags in the past week before the river crested.

"All systems are holding right now. We're in a watch and wait mode with our levees. The situation has stabilized in the last 24 hours," Lippert said.

"The best news is that we're not getting any rain, that would be utterly devastating if we got heavy rain now."

The National Weather Service said scattered thunderstorms were forecast for Wednesday night in western Iowa, although severe weather was not expected.

The Army Corps of Engineers, which operates river locks and dams, said 22 levees along the Mississippi had failed with the latest levee breaks near Meyer, Illinois, near St. Louis, Missouri and just north of Quincy, Illinois.

"They were lower level agricultural levees," said St Louis district Corps spokesman Alan Dooley.

The Corps has identified 48 levees protecting more than 285,000 acres of cropland from Dubuque, Iowa, to St Louis that were already under water or at high risk of flooding.

Among the most fertile farms in Iowa and Illinois have land that lies in the Mississippi River's vast flood plain.