Floodwaters started to recede in the St. Louis area Friday, enabling major roads to reopen after unseasonable, record-setting winter storms swamped the region. But in other areas of the Midwest, the worst was yet to come, NBC News reported.
Crests are expected in the coming days for swollen rivers in southern Missouri, southern Illinois, and then Arkansas, Tennessee and other southern states. Two more levees failed Friday, bringing to at least 11 the number topped by high water.
"It's going to get ugly," Alexander County, Illinois, Board Chairman Chalen Tatum told The Associated Press, after the Mississippi poured over Len Small levee.
While St. Louis itself stayed mostly dry thanks to a floodwall, its suburbs were water-logged. The biggest problems came from the Meramec River, a tributary of the Mississippi, which at points topped the 1993 record by 4 feet.
