Residents Keep Fighting Rising Mississippi River

WINFIELD, Mo. (AP) — As frantic efforts continue in Missouri to beat back the rising Mississippi River, the water has proved too much for yet another levee.

Two gaps opened up in the saturated Elm Point levee at St. Charles, about 30 miles north of St. Louis. The breaches allowed water to flood hundreds of acres of agricultural land. A mobile home park where about 700 people live has already been evacuated.

The constant pressure of the river remains the primary concern in Lincoln County, where officials have asked for volunteers to help fill 50,000 sandbags to fortify the Pin Oak levee.

Federal officials say they can’t be sure it will survive through the river’s crest at Winfield later in the week.

Towns upriver, meanwhile, are watching the Mississippi slowly begin to recede.

Forecasters expect the last stretch of the bloated river to crest later this week.