Missouri levees break as US flooding continues
Pastor Dale Morgan
Missouri levees break as US flooding continues*
27 Jun 2008 14:01:17 GMT
Source: Reuters
By Lisa Shumaker
CHICAGO, June 27 (Reuters) - A levee near Winfield, Missouri, that was
holding back the flood waters of the Mississippi River broke early
Friday morning, said the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
The levee broke at its south end at 5:20 a.m. CDT (1020 GMT) despite
sandbagging to increase its height.
Officials said the levee, which protects about 3,000 acres (1,215
hectares) of agricultural land along with a few dozen homes, had been
reinforced over the past week.
It was the 36th levee to be overtopped in the past 10 days or so along
the Mississippi as the river swelled after torrential rains further north.
"The levee simply sustained water levels higher than it was designed for
and for a much longer period of time than anyone had hoped," the Corps
said in a statement.
"Water had already risen above the top of the levee as it was built and
was on sandbags that were added to its top. The continuing saturation of
the soil was the likely cause of this breakdown," it said, saying it had
no further details.
The Midwest storms and torrential rains have killed 24 persons since
late May. More than 38,000 people have been displaced from their homes,
mostly in Iowa where 83 of 99 counties have been declared disaster areas.
The National Weather Service on Friday forecast strong thunderstorms
will continue through the day and into the night in central and southern
Iowa and northern Missouri, with numerous flash flood watches, hail and
high wind warnings.
Fears that as much as 5 million acres (2 mln hectares) of corn and
soybeans have been lost due to the flooding pushed corn and livestock
prices to record highs.
Chicago Board of Trade corn prices set a new record in overnight screen
trading on Friday at $8.25 per bushel in the July 2009 contract, more
than double the 40-year average for corn prices.
Corn is the main feedstuff for meat animals, main feedstock for
producing ethanol fuel, and is used in hundreds of other food and
industrial products throughout the economy.
Before the floods hit, stockpiles of corn in the United States, the
world's largest exporter with a 54 percent market share, had already
been projected to fall to 13-year lows next year.
Livestock prices have also set records and prices of soybeans are also
hovering at record highs on supply worries.
"The crop had been improving but the big rains this week in southern
Iowa and in Missouri stopped that trend, they probably deteriorated this
week," said Jason Roose, a grain market analyst for U.S. Commodities in
Des Moines, Iowa.
Roose, also a corn and soybean farmer, said, "Use me for example if you
like. I planned to plant and replant soybeans around here this week but
it didn't happen. I'm not able to do anything and everyone else around
here is in the same boat."
Roose concluded, "The weather is just not good. An inch of rain is one
thing, but these downpours are disastrous." (Additional reporting by Sam
Nelson in Chicago. Writing by Peter Bohan; Editing by John Picinich)