River slowly dropping at Cedar Rapids but other Iowa cities facing new flood dangers

Days after it rose out of its banks on its way to record flooding in Cedar Rapids, the Cedar River has forced at least 20,000 people from their homes in the U.S. state of Iowa , officials said Saturday.

The flooding in Iowa is the latest disaster created by severe storms blamed for at least nine deaths in the U.S. Midwest this week.

The drenching has also severely damaged the corn crop in Iowa, America's No. 1 corn state, and other parts of the Midwest at a time when corn prices are soaring and food shortages have led to violence in some poor countries. But officials said it was too soon to put a price tag on the damage.

Officials guess it will be four days before the Cedar River drops enough for workers to even begin pumping out water that has submerged more than 400 blocks, threatened the city's drinking supply and forced the evacuation of a downtown hospital.

"We're estimating at least a couple of weeks before the flood levels get down right around flood stage and below," said Dustin Hinrichs of the Linn County emergency operations center.

The Cedar River crested Friday night at nearly 32 feet (9.75 meters), 12 feet (3.66 meters) higher than the old record set in 1929.

County Supervisor Linda Langston estimated the number forced from their homes at 20,000 and said that figure could rise as officials got a better grasp of how many neighborhoods were flooded. Cedar Rapids has a population of about 120,000.

Residents have moved to shelters and hotels and many have moved in with friends and relatives. Driving in the area has been difficult for days but got even worse late Friday when the state patrol closed Interstate 380, which links Cedar Rapids to Iowa City. Earlier, officials also closed Interstate 80 at Iowa City, blocking a major east-west route through the state.

About 100 miles (160 kilometers) to the west, Des Moines was dealing with its first major flooding Saturday as water poured out of the Des Moines River and into a small neighborhood north of downtown.

Even as the river slowly recedes, officials in Cedar Rapids worried that the city's supply of fresh drinking water would run out. Only one of the city's half-dozen wells was working, and it was protected by sandbags and pumps powered by generators.

Preliminary damages estimates in Cedar Rapids reached $737 million, and officials foresee a long recovery.

"It's a bit overwhelming ... " said the city's mayor pro-tem, Brian Fagan. "This is an endurance competition. We have to be patient. We have to be cooperative."

In Des Moines, Iowa's largest city, a levee ruptured early Saturday and allowed the Des Moines River to pour into an area near downtown, and a mandatory evacuation was ordered for 270 homes, authorities said. Many residents of the area already had left after a voluntary evacuation request was issued Friday.

Des Moines city crews and National Guard troops used dump trucks and front-end loaders to build a temporary berm in a bid to stop the water, but by midmorning they had been ordered to abandon the work because officials expected the berm to also fail. That would leave hundreds of homes unprotected from flooding that had already surrounded the city's North High School.

"Things happened really fast," said Toby Hunvemuller of the Army Corps of Engineers. "We tried to figure out how high the level would go. Not enough time. We lost ground. We didn't want to risk life or harm anyone, and the decision was made to stop."

Elsewhere, Illinois emergency authorities said a levee along the Mississippi River in far western Illinois burst Saturday morning and voluntary evacuations were under way in Keithsburg, a town of about 700 residents.

Just south of Cedar Rapids, in Iowa City, the Iowa River had caused major damage by Saturday with the crest at least two days away. The river is expected to reach 33 feet (10.06 meters) to 34 feet (10.36 meters) late Monday or early Tuesday, far above the 25-foot (7.62-meter) flood stage.

More than 200 homes had been evacuated in Iowa City.

"This is our version of Katrina," Johnson County Emergency Management spokesman Mike Sullivan said. "This is the worst flooding we've ever seen _ much worse than 1993," when much of the Midwest was hit by record flooding

At the University of Iowa, whose campus is bisected by the Iowa River, students and faculty joined with townspeople and members of the National Guard to fill thousands of sandbags in the area known as the Arts Campus. But it wasn't enough.

"We've pretty much just abandoned any effort to try and protect the Arts Campus because we are just overwhelmed by the amount of water," university spokesman Steve Parrott said. "It's just too unsafe."

Only one bridge connecting the east and west sides of downtown Iowa City remained open, and officials said it may have to be closed this weekend.

The flooding was blamed for at least two deaths in Iowa: a driver was killed in an accident on a road under water, and a farmer who went out to check his property was swept away. That brought the region's weather-related death toll this week to nine, including four teenagers killed on Wednesday when a tornado tore through a Boy Scout camp, also in Iowa.

Since June 6, Iowa has gotten at least 8 inches (20 centimeters) of rain, following a wet spring that already saturated the ground. As of Friday, nine rivers were at or above historic flood levels. More thunderstorms are possible in the Cedar Rapids area over the weekend, but next week is expected to be sunny and dry.

Iowa Gov. Chet Culver declared 83 of the state's 99 counties disaster areas, a designation that helps speed aid and opens the way for loans and grants.

The drenching has also severely damaged crops in America's No. 1 corn state and other parts of the Midwest at a time when corn prices are soaring. Dave Miller, a grain farmer and director of research for the Iowa Farm Bureau, estimated that up to 1.3 million acres (530,000 hectares) of corn and 2 million acres (810,000 hectares) of soy beans _ about 20 percent of the state's overall grain crop _ had been lost to flooding.

Cedar Rapids' newspaper, The Gazette, continued to cover the story with the help of emergency generators. But the flood was just outside the front door and the place had no running water. Portable bathrooms were set up outside for the staff.

"We're putting the paper out through heroic, historic effort by the staff companywide," said Steve Buttry, who started as editor of the newspaper on Tuesday _ just one day before the disaster struck.