The crest of the swollen Mississippi River moved relentlessly downstream on Saturday as volunteers manned sandbagged levees, nursed hopes and coped with the costs of the worst US Midwest flooding in 15 years.
"At times like these you don't know whether to cry or laugh. But here in the Midwest we tend to favour the latter," said Charlotte Hoerr, who with her husband Brent farms land not far from the river in this small Missouri town.
The violent rush overcame more than two dozen levees this week, submerging small towns and vast stretches of prime farmland as the nation's most important river absorbed the runoff of torrential rains that put many Iowa towns under water last week. No levees were reported breached on Friday night. The Midwest flooding and storms blamed for 24 deaths since late May have caused damage in the billions of dollars and are expected to push US and world food prices higher.
Up to 5 million acres (2 mln hectares) may have been lost to just-planted crops at the heart of the world's top grain and food exporter. Prices for corn, cattle and hogs all set records this week due to the floods, as a world economy already slammed by inflation from soaring energy prices absorbed the blow.
The spillage onto the Mississippi's vast flood plain covered thousands of acres of crops. But several days of dry weather this week cut water flows, as did the levee breaches. The river in Hannibal was expected to crest on Sunday at 28.7 feet (8.7 metres), below the record 31.80 feet (9.7 metres) set in the 1993 flood. President George W. Bush toured some of the devastation in Iowa on Thursday, and the White House said relief would be made available from $4 billion in the government's disaster fund.
Bridges and highways have been swamped, factories shut down, water and power utilities damaged, and the earnings of railroads, farmers and myriad other businesses disrupted.