June 19, 2008
Nick Carey in Fort Madison, Iowa, John Ruwitch in Fengkou, China and by Jatindra Dash in Bhubaneswar, India
Reuters / The Ottawa Citizen
The swollen Mississippi River ran over the top of at least 12 more levees yesterday, as floodwaters swallowed up more U.S. farmland, adding to billion-dollar losses and feeding global food inflation fears.
Volunteers and aid workers were piling sandbags up and down the most important U.S. inland waterway to try to protect more levees and thousands of acres of prime crop land threatened as the river's crest moves south after last week's torrential rains.
Photo: Residents paddle down a flooded street in Fengkai county yesterday in Zhaoqing, Guangdong Province, China. Since June 6, torrential rains in China's southern provinces have killed 171 people, and forced more than a million residents from their homes. (MN Chan, Getty Images)
About 10 levees were breached earlier this week, bringing the total to 22 yesterday. The levee breaches lowered the river level by letting water spill onto the surrounding land.
Across the river at Dallas City, Illinois, about 50 sandbaggers made up of volunteers and National Guard troops were busy working ahead of the expected river crest overnight.
"We've had a little relief because the levee breaches lowered the river level a little. But it's coming up again. We're not done yet. This evening will be critical," said Kathy Dougherty of the Hancock County Emergency Services Agency.
The slow-rolling disaster, the worst flooding in the Midwest in 15 years, has swamped vast sections of the U.S. farm belt and forced tens of thousands of people from their homes.
In other flooding news, China has posted hundreds of police and rescue officials to shore up dams threatening to burst under torrential rain that has already flooded 14,400 square kilometres of crops and homes.
The rain and floods, concentrated in the southern industrial hub of Guangdong, have killed at least 171 people and left 52 missing since the start of the annual flood season and forecasters have warned of more downpours in coming days.
More than 750 government officials and police had been sent to conduct rescue work for six reservoirs in "danger of bursting" in southern Guangxi region, Xinhua news agency said.
About 3,000 people have been relocated downstream from a reservoir with a capacity of 1.8 million cubic metres, the agency said.
More than 1.66 million people have been relocated across nine provinces and regions in southern China since major flooding started 11 days ago.
Rain-triggered floods have toppled 134,000 houses, damaged or destroyed 2.32 million hectares of crops and caused economic losses of 27.7 billion yuan (about $4 billion U.S.).
Meanwhile, in India, soldiers rescued thousands of stranded people from submerged villages yesterday, as floods triggered by heavy monsoon rains swept across the country's east and northeast.
More than 300,000 people have lost their homes so far, and are scattered between camps, highways and makeshift shelters on higher ground, officials said. Rising river waters have broken through mud embankments and flooded vast areas.
"Flood waters have submerged thousands of acres of land, disrupted electricity, roads and rail communication in many districts," said S. Barai, a senior state government official in Bhubaneswar, capital of the eastern state of Orissa.
In tea-rich Assam state, thousands of people were still living in waist-deep water. Assam accounts for about 55 per cent of India's tea production.
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