More highways closed by floods

CHICAGO Rain-swollen rivers in the U.S. Midwest forced the evacuation of hundreds of residents, threatened crops and livestock and left scores of buildings underwater on Wednesday after days of extreme weather in which 24 people died. The clouds have long cleared out, and no more rain is expected in the Mississippi River basin until late next week. Surging Midwestern rivers forced hundreds of evacuations, threaten...

The swollen Mississippi River was cresting in St. Louis on Friday, as flood warnings still covered areas where 9.3 million people live in 17 states.

As rivers and streams pushed to heights not seen in almost a quarter-century, residents of Missouri and IL moved to higher ground on Wednesday.

Route 231/Telegraph was the only crossing open between St. Louis and Jefferson Counties.

The Missouri River leveled off about 5 feet shy of the record in St. Charles, Mo., and was on the way down at Hermann and Washington, two German heritage towns in Missouri's Wine Country region.

Afterward, government agencies raised the levees along the Des Peres and installed a series of gates and pumps to keep water out of homes while allowing sewer service. An estimated 100 homes in Arnold were damaged, as well as dozens more in nearby Pacific.

Southbound I-55 traffic is closed at the I-270/I-255 interchange.

"If you don't have to travel, don't", White said, "because we have so many areas being impacted".

The only north-south alternative to I-55 was an already-congested local road.

"The other alternates that we would have sent motorists to basically have water on them as well", Elliott said. Other roads, including Interstate 44 over the Meramec River, were also closed, according to The Associated Press.

One of the men is a duck hunter who disappeared this weekend from the Four Rivers Conservation Area in Vernon County.

Train service was derailed, both passenger and freight. Amtrak suspended its St. Louis-to-Kansas City route until floodwaters subside.

Members of the Missouri National Guard are providing security and filling sandbags during the flood, but they're also purifying water. The rare wintertime flooding was spurred by 10 inches of rain or more over a three-day period across a wide swath of Missouri and IL.

"In Eureka, firefighters rescued more than 50 people and their pets, said Eureka Fire Protection District spokesman Scott Barthelmass". The Mississippi is expected to crest at around 31 feet at Portage, and the town lies about 5 feet higher than that, he said.

Almost a dozen other levees considered at risk for "possible significant distress", were holding, but people were moving out just in case.

While St. Louis itself was not flooded, hundreds of homes in its southwestern suburbs were damaged and residents in hundreds of others had to leave as water approached the tops of levees. City leaders were weighing Thursday whether it was safe for them to return.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers said Wednesday that water had topped nine levees. Tanker trucks brought in water, but customers were urged to conserve. He said the majority of the impact will be to the National Flood Insurance Program. The pipeline carries oil from Oklahoma to an IL refinery near St. Louis.

"Everybody is at battle stations", says Bob Anderson, a spokesman for the Mississippi River Commission in Vicksburg, Miss.

Jay Nixon told CNN Wednesday he was "very concerned" about the flooding over the next day and night. The death toll in IL rose Thursday from seven to eight.

At times, the river is cresting more than 25 feet above flood stage. About 2,500 hogs drowned in an IL barn after a creek overflowed its banks, said Jennifer Tirey, a spokeswoman for the state's Pork Producers Association.

"It's been an hour and 20 minutes", she said of her commute one way. Power at several locations around the town has been shut off by police, said. Still, high water may continue to slow shipping and loading throughout January, he said. Not only are the floodwaters expected to reach an all-time high, he said, but low temperatures increase safety concerns. "It's inevitable that accidents will occur". "Everyone has done a lot of work".

The Missouri River in eastern Missouri also was on the decline.

Information for this article was contributed by Jim Salter, Alan Scher Zagier and Heather Hollingsworth of The Associated Press; and by Barbara Powell, Tim Loh, Brian K. Sullivan, Sheela Tobben, Mark Shenk, Lydia Mulvany and Jeff Wilson of Bloomberg News.

• Rob Kardashian Diagnosed With Diabetes

• Presidential office refutes rumors on Seoul-Tokyo agreement

• Spurs can win the title, says Pochettino