Cresting Mississippi River breaks levees as it surges through area - (St. Louis)

The Mississippi River broke through two levees and threatened sandbag defenses for river-hugging towns as its bulging flood crested Tuesday through the St. Louis area.

West Alton and Portage des Sioux in St. Charles County and Kimmswick in Jefferson County stayed dry behind hurriedly built temporary floodwalls and soggy earthen levees topped with sandbags. The Mississippi breached a levee protecting the bottomland near its confluence with the Missouri River, and another along an island near the Chain of Rocks.

The 100-foot break near the confluence allowed water to cover much of the bottomland east of U.S. 67, threatening 43 homes and businesses and inspiring a hurried evacuation. The raised highway serves as a back levee protecting land to the west, including West Alton and Portage des Sioux.

Downriver from the confluence, near the Interstate 270 bridges at Chain of Rocks, the Mississippi also broke through a levee protecting Chouteau Island, between the river and the Chain of Rocks barge canal. Only about 10 people make the island home, according to the Army Corps of Engineers.

http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/metro/0306e2c5-ba20-5de5-bc7e-f630adc2d387.html