Snowmelt, rain combine to swell rivers across Midwest

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Hundreds of homes flooded in several Midwestern states after rivers breached at least a dozen levees following heavy rain and snowmelt in the region, authorities said Monday while warning that the flooding was expected to linger.

Many homes in a mostly rural area of Missouri’s Holt County were inundated with up to 7 feet of water from the swollen Missouri River, said the county’s emergency management director, Tom Bullock. He said his own home was on an island surrounded by floodwater.

One couple was rescued in a helicopter after water from three breached levees swept across 40,000 acres, he said. Another nine breaches were confirmed in Nebraska and Iowa counties south of the Platte River, according to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

“The levees are busted and we aren’t even into the wet season when the rivers run high,” Bullock said, noting that local farmers are only a month away from planting corn and soybeans. “The water isn’t going to be gone, and the levees aren’t going to be fixed this year.”

In nearby Atchison County, about 130 people were urged to leave their homes as water levels rose and strained levees, three of which had already been overtopped by water. Missouri State Highway Patrol crews were on standby to rescue anyone who insisted on staying despite the danger.

“The next four to five days are going to be pretty rough,” said Rhonda Wiley, Atchison County’s emergency management director.

The Missouri River already crested upstream of Omaha, Neb., though hundreds of people remained out of their homes and water continued to pour through busted levees. Flooding was so bad around Fremont, Neb., that just one lane of U.S. Highway 30 was above water outside the city of 26,000. State law enforcement limited traffic to trucks carrying gas, food, water and other...