(CNN) -- Water spilled over a levee on the Mississippi River on Wednesday, surging into farmland in west-central Illinois, the Army Corps of Engineers for the Mississippi Valley said.
The Corps of Engineers said that the levee had been overtopped, but local officials had a different account, reporting that the levee -- near Meyer, Illinois -- breached in two places, pouring water into Hancock and Adams counties.
"It's kind of a sad day," said Sheriff John Jefferson of Hancock County. "People put in a lot of manpower [to build up the levees] and all was lost."
The floodwaters will cover thousands of acres of farmland from Warsaw to Quincy -- about a 25-mile stretch of the river.
"There's a lot of wheat fields down here just about ready to be harvested, and they're going to lose all that," Jefferson told CNN. "The corn crop, the bean crop that's up is all going to be lost. And the real work's going to come after the flood recedes. It'll take years to get this ground back into shape to farm it."
All residents in the area had been evacuated, Jefferson said. Watch why Illinois breach helps Iowa »
About 45 miles north, another levee in west-central Illinois near the small village of Gulfport was breached Tuesday morning, prompting officials to evacuate about 400 people in Henderson County.
Gulfport resident Lois Russell, 83, watched floodwaters rise around the white farmhouse she'd lived in for 57 years, The Associated Press reported.
"What else am I going to do? Where else am I going to go?" she asked.
"We were very, very disappointed that this levee broke today," said Patti Thompson of the Illinois Emergency Management Agency, citing preparations the state had made. "But ... it's a very powerful river, and it can be hard to harness."Authorities on Tuesday closed the Great River Bridge connecting Illinois to Iowa, according to the sheriff's office of Henderson County.
Across the Mississippi in Burlington, Iowa, water levels have "dropped a bit," but they may rise again later in the week, according to David Miller, administrator for the Iowa Homeland Security and Emergency Management Division.
"The good news is the floodwater is receding in much of the state," Miller said. "The bad news is we're still in a flood fight."
He said officials are also monitoring flooding at Keokuk, a riverside town, where water levels are expected to crest by Thursday.
Thompson said Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich had called up some 1,100 National Guard members to assist in sandbagging efforts. She also said inmates are helping on the levees and others are bagging sand in correctional institutions.
Dozens of National Guard members and residents in Gladstone, Illinois, about 10 miles northeast of Gulfport, were tossing sandbags onto a makeshift levee to keep floodwater from flowing into the farming hamlet of 300 people.
Levees elsewhere along the Mississippi were being topped with sandbags as the river -- fed by its flooded tributaries -- continued to rise. Several significant rivers that flow into the Mississippi have overflowed their banks, including the Cedar, Des Moines and Iowa rivers.
In Clarksville, Missouri, five blocks were already under water, but National Guard members, inmates and students were sandbagging to save other parts of the historic artists' town, AP reported.
"We fix one thing and it breaks," Mayor Jo Anne Smiley told AP. "Sewers are plugged up. We have leaks in walls and people who need things. We're boating in food to people."
President Bush said he and a team will travel to Iowa, where two weeks of flooding have left five people dead and forced more than 38,000 from their homes.
"Now that the water is beginning to recede, the question is, how do we help with the recovery?" he said, referring to Iowa.
A housing task force of state and federal officials planned to meet Wednesday to figure out the best way to house displaced residents, said Bill Vogel, a federal coordinator with the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
In Cedar Rapids, Iowa, where the Cedar River had inundated more than 400 city blocks, people were beginning to return to their homes as the waters receded, said Lu Barron, a Linn County supervisor. Watch Cedar Rapids resident survey the mess in her home »
"We're doing pretty good," Barron said. "People are getting into their businesses, and getting into their homes," she said, acknowledging that there are "many, many that aren't."
A massive cleanup is under way, she added.
Still, officials at The Mother Mosque of America in Cedar Rapids -- one of the first mosques built in the United States -- reported documents inside the structure, including photographs of Muslim immigrants from the early 20th century, were destroyed by flooding.
"The mosque has been visited by people from all over the country," Imam Taha Tawil, the mosque's director, said in a written statement. "It is part of the American Muslim identity."
Flooding also disrupted Amtrak service along three routes in the Midwest, forcing the company to use buses to bypass the flooded tracks. The routes were between Kansas City, Missouri, and Galesburg, Illinois; Chicago, Illinois, and Denver, Colorado; and St. Paul, Minnesota, and Chicago, Amtrak said. What do you really think about this?
The Corps of Engineers said that the levee had been overtopped, but local officials had a different account, reporting that the levee -- near Meyer, Illinois -- breached in two places, pouring water into Hancock and Adams counties.
"It's kind of a sad day," said Sheriff John Jefferson of Hancock County. "People put in a lot of manpower [to build up the levees] and all was lost."
The floodwaters will cover thousands of acres of farmland from Warsaw to Quincy -- about a 25-mile stretch of the river.
"There's a lot of wheat fields down here just about ready to be harvested, and they're going to lose all that," Jefferson told CNN. "The corn crop, the bean crop that's up is all going to be lost. And the real work's going to come after the flood recedes. It'll take years to get this ground back into shape to farm it."
All residents in the area had been evacuated, Jefferson said. Watch why Illinois breach helps Iowa »
About 45 miles north, another levee in west-central Illinois near the small village of Gulfport was breached Tuesday morning, prompting officials to evacuate about 400 people in Henderson County.
Gulfport resident Lois Russell, 83, watched floodwaters rise around the white farmhouse she'd lived in for 57 years, The Associated Press reported.
"What else am I going to do? Where else am I going to go?" she asked.
"We were very, very disappointed that this levee broke today," said Patti Thompson of the Illinois Emergency Management Agency, citing preparations the state had made. "But ... it's a very powerful river, and it can be hard to harness."Authorities on Tuesday closed the Great River Bridge connecting Illinois to Iowa, according to the sheriff's office of Henderson County.
Across the Mississippi in Burlington, Iowa, water levels have "dropped a bit," but they may rise again later in the week, according to David Miller, administrator for the Iowa Homeland Security and Emergency Management Division.
"The good news is the floodwater is receding in much of the state," Miller said. "The bad news is we're still in a flood fight."
He said officials are also monitoring flooding at Keokuk, a riverside town, where water levels are expected to crest by Thursday.
Thompson said Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich had called up some 1,100 National Guard members to assist in sandbagging efforts. She also said inmates are helping on the levees and others are bagging sand in correctional institutions.
Dozens of National Guard members and residents in Gladstone, Illinois, about 10 miles northeast of Gulfport, were tossing sandbags onto a makeshift levee to keep floodwater from flowing into the farming hamlet of 300 people.
Levees elsewhere along the Mississippi were being topped with sandbags as the river -- fed by its flooded tributaries -- continued to rise. Several significant rivers that flow into the Mississippi have overflowed their banks, including the Cedar, Des Moines and Iowa rivers.
In Clarksville, Missouri, five blocks were already under water, but National Guard members, inmates and students were sandbagging to save other parts of the historic artists' town, AP reported.
"We fix one thing and it breaks," Mayor Jo Anne Smiley told AP. "Sewers are plugged up. We have leaks in walls and people who need things. We're boating in food to people."
President Bush said he and a team will travel to Iowa, where two weeks of flooding have left five people dead and forced more than 38,000 from their homes.
"Now that the water is beginning to recede, the question is, how do we help with the recovery?" he said, referring to Iowa.
A housing task force of state and federal officials planned to meet Wednesday to figure out the best way to house displaced residents, said Bill Vogel, a federal coordinator with the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
In Cedar Rapids, Iowa, where the Cedar River had inundated more than 400 city blocks, people were beginning to return to their homes as the waters receded, said Lu Barron, a Linn County supervisor. Watch Cedar Rapids resident survey the mess in her home »
"We're doing pretty good," Barron said. "People are getting into their businesses, and getting into their homes," she said, acknowledging that there are "many, many that aren't."
A massive cleanup is under way, she added.
Still, officials at The Mother Mosque of America in Cedar Rapids -- one of the first mosques built in the United States -- reported documents inside the structure, including photographs of Muslim immigrants from the early 20th century, were destroyed by flooding.
"The mosque has been visited by people from all over the country," Imam Taha Tawil, the mosque's director, said in a written statement. "It is part of the American Muslim identity."
Flooding also disrupted Amtrak service along three routes in the Midwest, forcing the company to use buses to bypass the flooded tracks. The routes were between Kansas City, Missouri, and Galesburg, Illinois; Chicago, Illinois, and Denver, Colorado; and St. Paul, Minnesota, and Chicago, Amtrak said. What do you really think about this?
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