Midwest's misery heads downstream

GULFPORT, Ill. — Floodwaters that wreaked havoc along Illinois and Iowa rivers have poured into the Mississippi, creating a torrent of water that threatens to spread the misery to historic riverside towns on the way to St. Louis and beyond.

Early Tuesday, a levee burst in Gulfport, flooding thousands of acres of the country's most fertile farmland, swamping the downtown and forcing the closure of highways, rail lines and a major bridge across the Mississippi. More than a dozen people were rescued, some of them by helicopter, officials said. Among those saved was a motorist who was stranded on top of his car amid the rising waters.

People were urged to evacuate an area near Gulfport as floodwaters threatened about 12 square miles of farmland. Hundreds of volunteers in towns farther downstream desperately laid sandbags and built berms in hopes of staving off the water.

"Hopefully, it'll hold," said Lloyd Wellington, 60, in nearby Gladstone, Ill., as volunteers sped around him on all-terrain vehicles, transporting sandbags filled by National Guardsmen outside a local carwash.

The National Weather Service predicted the river would crest at Burlington, Iowa, by today; at Quincy, Ill., and the Missouri towns of Hannibal (of Mark Twain fame) and Clarksville by Thursday or Friday; and at St. Louis by Saturday.

Preliminary estimates were that the flooding has caused more than $1.5 billion in damage in Iowa, and that figure will undoubtedly rise as the high water moves downstream.

In Washington, President Bush promised to speed federal disaster relief to flood-ravaged Midwestern communities and said he plans to visit Iowa on Thursday to meet with state and local officials.

"The first task at hand is to deal with the floodwaters, to anticipate where the flooding may next occur and to work with the state and local authorities to deal with their response," Bush said. "Now that the water is beginning to recede, the question is, how do we help with the recovery?"

But, as the water retreated in parts of central Iowa, it inexorably rose along the Mississippi, swelled by floodwaters from its tributaries.

The federal government fears the river could overflow 27 levees along the Mississippi if forecasts are accurate and a major sandbagging effort does not raise the levees sufficiently, The Associated Press reported. Workers were busy placing millions of sandbags atop levees in Illinois, Iowa and Missouri.

In Keokuk, Iowa, near the Missouri border, Iowa Homeland Security spokesman Brett Voorhees said officials and local volunteers were gearing up. "It will be a challenge, but the good news is, not as much as a challenge as we've already faced in Cedar Rapids," he said.

Information from The Associated Press is included in this report.