Flooding forcing evacuations, traffic troubles in Missouri

ST. LOUIS (AP) — Surging Midwestern rivers forced hundreds of evacuations, threatened dozens of levees and brought transportation by car, boat or train to a virtual standstill Thursday in the St. Louis area.

Swollen rivers and streams, already high from a wet late fall, were pushed to heights not seen in nearly a quarter- century after more than 10 inches of rain fell this week in a wide swath from central Illinois through southwest Missouri.

The Mississippi River appeared it would be about 7 1/2 feet below the 1993 record in St. Louis, where a floodwall offered solid protection, but as the waters flow south, points in southern Missouri and Illinois were awaiting the crest.

Amtrak officials halted the St. Louis-to-Kansas City train on Thursday, and 5-mile stretch of the Mississippi River that was closed at St. Louis halted barge traffic.

[...] water poured over sandbags at Valley Park's sewage treatment plant, forcing its closure and allowing raw sewage to flow into the Meramec, just it has since Monday when another wastewater plant in nearby Fenton flooded.

In Illinois, where seven of the flooding deaths occurred, the search for two missing 18-year-olds resumed Thursday with dive crews surveying a flooded lake where one of the teen's cellphone was tracked.