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Mississippi River levees break, more at risk Nick Carey FORT MADISON, Iowa (Reuters) - The swollen Mississippi River ran over the top of at least nine more levees on Wednesday as floodwaters swallowed up more U.S. farmland, feeding inflation fears as corn prices soared to record highs. 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. "Their misfortune had been our fortune. I'd rather it hadn't come at the expense of others. But it is what it is," Steve Cirinna of the Lee County Emergency Management Agency said of the levee breaches, which lowered the river.
(Article continues below) 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. LeRoy Lippert, chairman of emergency management committee for Des Moines County, Iowa, said volunteers and aid workers in the town of Burlington filled 2.5 million sandbags in the past week before the river crested. "All systems are holding right now. We're in a watch and wait mode with our levees. The situation has stabilized in the last 24 hours," Lippert said. "The best news is that we're not getting any rain, that would be utterly devastating if we got heavy rain now." The Army Corps of Engineers, which operates river locks and dams, said 19 levees along the Mississippi had failed with the latest levee breaks near Meyer, Illinois, and north of St. Louis, Missouri.
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