U.S. Midwestern flooding death roll rises as cleanup begins

The Mississippi River and many of its tributaries continued their retreat Sunday from historic and deadly winter flooding, leaving amid the silt a massive cleanup and recovery effort likely to take weeks, if not months.

The flood, fuelled by more than 25 centimetres of rain over a three-day period that began Christmas Day, is blamed for 25 deaths in Illinois and Missouri, reflecting Sunday's discovery of the body of a second teenager who drowned in central Illinois' Christian County.

• Southern Missouri, Illinois residents begin cleanup after deadly winter floods
• Southern Missouri, Illinois homes threatened by levee breaks
• U.S. Midwest floods: Worst may be yet to come, officials say

In a news release, the Christian County Coroner's Office says that the body of 18-year-old Brandon M. Mann of Taylorville was spotted and recovered on Sunday morning less than 60 metres from where a truck he and another teen were last seen in was found last week. 

Last Friday, authorities recovered the body of 18-year-old Devan R. Everett near where dive crews found the truck. The teens, who were killed while crossing a flooded road last week in Kincaid, Ill., were reported missing on Monday.

Illinois River still rising 

The Mississippi River was receding except in the far southern tip of both states. The Meramec River, the St. Louis-area tributary of the Mississippi that caused so much damage last week, already was below flood stage in the hard-hit Missouri towns of Pacific and Eureka and dropping elsewhere.

But worries surfaced anew Sunday along the still-rising Illinois River north of St. Louis, where crests near the west-central towns of Valley City, Meredosia, Beardstown and Havana were to approach records before receding in coming days.

In Kincaid, a 1,400-resident central Illinois town near the South Fork Sangamon River's south fork, Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner toured flood-damaged homes Sunday as residents piled ruined furniture, appliances and clothes along the street for disposal crews to pick up.

Mike Crews, Christian County's emergency manager, said the worst of the inundation appeared to be past, "until the new weather comes," citing the prospect of potentially heavy rain later in the week.

In Illinois' Morgan County, home to the 1,000-resident village of Meredosia, locals were keeping wary eyes on levies fortified with 50,000 sandbags. As of midday Sunday at Meredosia, the Illinois was more than three metres above flood stage and pressing toward an expected crest Tuesday roughly 15 centimetres short of the record set in July.

While optimistic those levies would hold, Jacksonville-Morgan County Emergency Management Director Phil McCarty the prospect of flooding during the chill of winter carried dangerous health risks, including hypothermia if people have to wade out of their homes in sub-freezing weather.

In central Illinois, the 1,400-resident town of Kincaid was starting to clean up after floodwaters damaged more than three dozen homes and several roads, Christian County emergency manager Mike Crews said. He said the worst of the inundation appeared to be past, "until the new weather comes," citing the prospect of potentially heavy rain later in the week.

Missouri state emergency 

U.S. President Barack Obama signed a federal emergency declaration Saturday for Missouri, allowing federal aid to be used to help state and local response efforts. It also allows the Federal Emergency Management Agency to co-ordinate disaster relief efforts. Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon had asked for the help.

St. Louis-area cleanup largely was focused around the Meramec. Two wastewater treatment plants were so damaged by the floodwaters that raw sewage spewed into the river. Hundreds of people were forced to flee their homes in the Missouri communities of Pacific, Eureka, Valley Park and Arnold, where many homes took in water.

In southeast Missouri, up to 30 homes and several businesses were damaged in Cape Girardeau, a community of nearly 40,000 residents that is mostly protected by a flood wall.

The Mississippi peaked at 14.9 metres Friday night, 12 centimetres above the 1993 record, but short of the 15-metre mark projected. Nearby levee breaks in other places kept the crest down.

Amtrak passenger train service between St. Louis and Kansas City was back in business on Sunday, four days after high water that reached the tracks at some locations forced the passenger service to be halted.