WRAPUP 4-U.S. Midwest farmland flooding boosts food prices

*Mississippi floods Iowa river town, sandbagging goes on

*Army Corps says 26 levees, 285,000 farm acres at risk

*Bush to visit and pledges aid, Democrat critical

By Nick Carey

FORT MADISON, Iowa, June 17 (Reuters) - The Mississippi River surged up through storm drains and flooded part of an eastern Iowa river town on Tuesday as the worst Midwest floods in 15 years ruined cropland and drove up world food prices.

"There is nowhere for the water to go, so it's flooding these areas," said Lee County official Steve Cirinna, pointing to pools forming amid historic brick houses in Fort Madison.

Volunteers and National Guard troops helped reinforce or raise levees on both sides of the river seeking to protect low-lying businesses, water supplies, and prime farmland planted with increasingly valuable crops.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers estimated that 26 levees protecting about 285,000 acres of prime cropland were either already yielding to high water or at high risk of doing in coming days as record floodwaters from Iowa and farther north drained down the Mississippi, the main U.S. inland waterway.

Across the river from Burlington, Iowa, a levee broke in Gulfport, Illinois, sending muddy waters cascading onto nearby farmland and a few homes. Although sandbagging was going on, no one was injured. Authorities closed the river bridge and road.

Corn and soybean prices closed near record highs after millions of acres of U.S. cropland were lost or damaged in the heart of the world's largest grain exporter. Cattle and hog futures prices also hit new highs, with soaring feed costs expected to prompt farmers to cull livestock numbers.

"We've faced some pressure this year, but there could be greater pressure next year on food inflation when protein prices start to increase," said Bill Lapp, a food industry consultant and former chief economist at Conagra Inc.

AID PROMISED

U.S. President George W. Bush promised aid to the stricken region, where farm and business losses are expected to be in the billions of dollars. Bush will visit Iowa on Thursday.

"I, unfortunately, have been to too many disasters as president," Bush said after a briefing on the flooding.

But Sen. Robert Byrd, a West Virginia Democrat, said little had been done to prevent flooding and Bush had learned nothing from Hurricane Katrina and other disasters.

"President Bush has asserted that investing in America's needs is somehow 'wasteful' and his budget, which does not add one thin dime for a boost in levee funding, reflects this sentiment," Byrd said.