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 morning, 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.
The river was expected to crest Tuesday afternoon in Gulfport, as 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 Guard troops outside a local carwash.
The National Weather Service predicted that the river would reach levels above previous catastrophic floods as soon as Tuesday evening. Forecasters said they expected the river to crest at Burlington, Iowa, by today; at Quincy, Ill., and the Missouri towns of Hannibal and Clarksville by Thursday or Friday; and at St. Louis by Saturday.
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.
/breakingnews
