Midwest floodwaters wash levees, weather improves

By Carey Gillam

WINFIELD, Missouri (Reuters) - 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."

Binder said the flooding was now expected to swamp between 50,000 acres and 70,000 acres (20,240 hectares and 28,330 hectares) in the county, with the river 13 feet above flood stage. But the river crested at Winfield overnight at 37.1 feet and water levels were falling.

RECORD CORN PRICES

The Midwest storms and torrential rains have killed at least 24 people since late May. More than 38,000 people have been driven from their homes, mostly in Iowa where 83 of 99 counties have been declared disaster areas.

Fears that as many as 5 million acres of corn and soybeans have been lost to flooding in the world's largest grain and food exporter pushed corn and livestock prices to record highs in the last week.

Corn prices at the Chicago Board of Trade on Friday traded at a record $8.25 per bushel, more than double the 40-year average. Stockpiles of corn in the United States -- which normally ships more than half of all world corn exports -- had already been projected at 13-year lows next year.

So the effect on global food prices as U.S. prices soar has alarmed everyone from central bankers to food aid groups.

Flood aid and relief was heating up as a political issue.