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WINFIELD, Missouri-The cresting Mississippi River washed over more flood barriers on Saturday but drier weather fed hopes of relief as the worst Midwest floods in 15 years added to billion-dollar losses, global food inflation fears and the political temperature in a U.S. election year. Thunderstorms this week that had added to a month-long deluge let up and drier, cooler weather was forecast for saturated areas of Iowa, Missouri and Illinois where thousands of residents have been evacuated and hundreds of thousands of acres of prime farmland swamped.In Winfield, Missouri, a levee break on Friday sent a rush of muddy water across 3,000 acres of surrounding fields and prompted frantic efforts to hold back more water from the town of about 800 people north of St. Louis.But those efforts failed shortly before dawn on Saturday as the river pushed through a six-foot- (1.8-metre-)high barrier of sandbags that stretched 2,000 feet along the community's eastern edge."The water won," said Lincoln County emergency management spokesman Andy Binder.The water was rising rapidly on Saturday through the area of about 100 homes, playgrounds and ballparks."It just came in under the barrier and then blew through it," said Winfield Mayor Harry Stonebraker. "It's terrible ... what the Mississippi can do.""I was hoping it would hold," said a weary Mary Navarro, whose gray two-bedroom home was one of the first to succumb to the floodwaters on Saturday. "I'm going to miss that house."To read more go to:
As in the days of Noah....
