Flooding Spreads as Levees Fail
The bloated Mississippi River surged inland Saturday, unhindered by failed levees along much of its Missouri side, and President Clinton declared flood-ravaged sections of Illinois, Iowa and Missouri major disaster areas.
Heavy rain fell across the upper Mississippi Valley, with eight inches recorded Friday night and Saturday morning in Kansas City.
Flooding along the Mississippi and its tributaries had forced more than 20,000 people from their homes by Saturday and caused 16 deaths. Officials estimate crop and property damage at more than $2 billion.
The river flooded 276,000 acres along a 200-mile stretch of Missouri from Hannibal south to Cape Girardeau, or 431 square miles, said Gary Dyhouse, a spokesman for the Army Corps of Engineers in St. Louis. From Hannibal south to St. Louis, most of the levees along the Missouri side of the river had been breached or topped, he said Saturday.
“Everything north of us is pretty well gone,” Dyhouse said.
Levees in other states also collapsed, including one Friday in Meyer, Ill., across the river from Canton, Mo. The break sent the Mississippi cascading over as much as 30,000 acres of prime west-central Illinois farmland.
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