Levee holding, but just barely

The weakest spot left along the swollen Mississippi River may be the Pin Oak levee, a barrier so tenuous that soil slides down its slope. Only National Guard soldiers and firefighters in life vests are allowed to stack sandbags, because volunteers and heavy equipment could sink. A single muskrat recently created a geyser of river water by digging into the berm.

But the earthen levee is all that's still protecting 100 houses, a city park, several businesses and 3,000 acres of agricultural land in east Winfield, Mo., one of the last towns where the upper Mississippi was expected to crest.

The Mississippi was expected to finally crest at Winfield sometime late Tuesday, and to flow at its high-water mark -- more than 11 feet above flood stage -- for two more days. A disturbance as minor as a wake from a passing boat could the difference between saving the levee and catastrophic failure.

Several miles down the river, the Elm Point levee in St. Charles succumbed early Tuesday. But the breach there swamped only a soccer field and a sod farm, and St. Charles Assistant Fire Chief Rich Oney said residents of a nearby mobile home park would likely stay dry.

ASSOCIATED PRESS