The Mississippi river is in danger of bursting its banks after the heaviest rainfall in more than 15 years.
If it does, thousands of acres of farmland and homes will be swamped, the US Army has warned.
It could also lead to a food crisis.
Currently a series of levees are keeping the river at bay - although one in Illinois has already collapsed.
Volunteers and National Guard troops helped reinforce or raise levees on both sides of the river, trying to protect low-lying businesses, water supplies, and prime farmland planted with crops
The US 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 risk of doing so.
It comes as record floodwaters from Iowa and farther north drained down the Mississippi, the main US 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.
Corn and soybean prices closed near record highs after millions of acres of US 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.
http://uk.news.yahoo.com/skynews/20080618/twl-mississippi-river-set-to-burst-its-b-3fd0ae9.html
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