By James B. Kelleher
EAST ST. LOUIS, Illinois (Reuters) - The worst Midwestflooding in 15 years eased on Saturday after the swollenMississippi River crested in St. Louis, but the toll was stillrising as billions of dollars in damage to crops, communitiesand infrastructure were assessed.
Emergency workers at river levees and floodwalls fearedmore rain could swell river levels again and complicaterecovery efforts. But the skies remained mostly clear andthousands of relief workers could finally exhale.
"It really is looking positive. The weather has cooperatedand that's made a difference," said Maggie Carson, aspokeswoman for Illinois Emergency Management in Alton,Illinois, a few miles north of St. Louis.
Thunderstorms seen for the northern Midwest in the next fewdays were expected to be scattered and pose no new threat.
The flooding and storms blamed for 24 deaths since late Mayhave caused billions of dollars in damage to the heart of theU.S. grain belt, pushing corn and other food commodity pricesto record highs and feeding fears of higher world food prices.
Bridges and highways have been swamped, factories shutdown, water and power utilities damaged, and the earnings ofrailroads, farmers and myriad other businesses disrupted.
Iowa and Illinois have been the hardest hit, but parts ofWisconsin, Minnesota, Indiana and Missouri have also beenswamped. The runoff from torrential rains in the northernMidwest in late May and early June fed the Mississippi'ssouthward torrent.
As the Mississippi crested, towns along the river's vastflood plain were left to tally their losses and wait for thewaters to subside, which could take weeks or even months.
"Right now things are looking good. The crisis part ispassed and that's heartening. We're breathing a sigh ofrelief," said Farm Bureau official Blake Roderick, executivedirector for Pike and Scott counties in Illinois.
'ST. LOUIS HAS CRESTED'
River levels peaked in St. Louis at 37.27 feet (11.3metres) late on Friday, lower than earlier forecast and wellbelow the record of 49.58 feet (15.1 meters) set in 1993.
More than two dozen levee breaks up-river earlier in theweek took pressure off downstream areas.
"St. Louis has crested. Everything is holding north ofhere," said John Daves, a spokesman for the U.S. Army Corps ofEngineers in St. Louis.
No additional levee breaks were reported on Saturday.Sandbagging operations were halted in many communities,although the Illinois National Guard spent the day fortifyingthe low-lying town of Hamburg, Illinois, from high water.
Some 130 miles (209 km) downstream from St. Louis, thenation's most important river is expected to crest at CapeGirardeau, Missouri, on Monday at 41.5 feet (12.6 metres), alsowell below the 1993 peak of 48.5 feet (14.8 meters).
Getting back to business as usual will take time.
Small towns and vast stretches of prime corn and soybeanacreage have been submerged. Barge traffic remains halted on a200-mile (322 km) stretch of the middle-Mississippi River,costing barge carriers millions of dollars a day.
Up to 5 million acres (2 mln hectares) of crops may havebeen lost to the world's top grain and food exporter. In Iowaalone, crop losses have been estimated at $3 billion.
Thousands returning to their homes face a toxic mess.
"We know from past experience that we will find E.coli,petroleum, gasoline, pesticides, household waste," said ThomasDunne, an official with the Environmental Protection Agency'soffice of homeland security.
The economically depressed city of East St. Louis, locatedacross the river from the Missouri city, appeared to have beenspared a potential disaster as its outdated levees held.
President George W. Bush toured some of the devastation inIowa on Thursday, and the White House said relief would be madeavailable from $4 billion (2 billion pounds) in thegovernment's disaster fund.
Flood relief was rapidly becoming a political issue in aU.S. election year. Republican presidential candidate JohnMcCain toured Iowa on Thursday, separately from Bush, whileDemocratic candidate Barack Obama helped stack sandbags earlierin the week in Quincy in his home state of Illinois.
Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich wrote to Bush on Friday,asking for faster aid for 20 flooded Illinois counties. InIowa, 83 of 99 counties have been declared disaster areas.
(Writing by Ros Krasny and Peter Bohan; additionalreporting by Nick Carey; editing by Vicki Allen and ToddEastham)
