UPDATE 4-Floods swamp Missouri, Illinois; 9 million people in risk areas

(Recasts with towns farther south bracing for flooding, adds
quotes, details)
By Mary Wisniewski
Dec 31 (Reuters) - Towns in Tennessee and southern Illinois
prepared on Thursday to cope with potential flooding after
rain-swollen rivers washed out hundreds of structures in
Missouri, Arkansas and eastern Oklahoma and forced thousands to
flee their homes.
As of Thursday morning, some 9.3 million people nationwide
were in areas with flood warnings. That was down from 12.1
million on Wednesday and 17.7 million on Tuesday.
At least 28 people have died in the U.S. Midwest since the
weekend in the rare winter floods, mostly from driving into
flooded areas after storms dropped up to 12 inches (30 cm) of
rain, officials said. Flooding in the Midwest usually comes in
the spring as snowmelt swells rivers.
While floodwaters from a number of rivers began to recede on
Thursday around St. Louis, towns farther down the Mississippi
hoped their levees would resist rising river levels. Southern
states like Louisiana will be affected in coming days, the
National Weather Service said.
The days of downpours have pushed the Mississippi and its
tributaries to record highs or levels not seen in decades, the
NWS and local officials said.
Workers in Tennessee were preparing on Thursday for the
Mississippi River in Memphis to reach flood stage over the
weekend.
"We're moving things up high and we've got our generators
out and got some extra water," said Dotty Kirkendoll, a clerk at
Riverside Park Marina on McKellar Lake, which feeds off the
Mississippi River.
The Mississippi, the second-longest river in the United
States, is expected to crest in the small town of Thebes, in
southern Illinois, at 47.5 feet (14 metres) on Sunday, more than
1-1/2 feet above the 1995 record, the NWS said.
Thebes village worker Bobby White said some sewage pumps
were shut down to avoid overloading and that portable toilets
had been supplied to affected areas. Most homes in the town,
including his own, are on a hill and should be fine, he said.
"Most of the people at the bottom of the hill moved out
years ago," White said.
The floodwaters have closed sections of major trucking
routes Interstate 44 and Interstate 55, with the latter expected
to partially reopen on Thursday evening, the Missouri Department
of Transportation said.
The U.S. Coast Guard issued a high water safety advisory on
Thursday for more than 560 miles (900 km) of the Lower
Mississippi River from Caruthersville, Missouri, to near
Natchez, Mississippi.
Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal declared a state of
emergency to prepare for flooding.
"All that water's coming south and we have to be ready for
it," Lieutenant Governor-Elect Billy Nungesser told CNN. "It's a
serious concern. It's early in the season. We usually don't see
this until much later."

BLEAK NEW YEAR'S EVE
Parts of Missouri turned into a vast lake this week, with
water up to the rooftops in some towns. Two rivers west of St.
Louis crested at historic levels. Sewer plants were disabled and
hundreds were forced from their homes.
Mayor Kevin Coffey of Eureka, west of St. Louis, said his
town had not seen such bad flooding in 150 years and some of its
oldest businesses had been damaged.
It was a bleak New Year's Eve for evacuated people.
Tony Bellis, 51, had to leave his house in Arnold, Missouri,
southwest of St. Louis, when the city shut off power in case of
flooding.
Bellis' home, where he runs his Smelly Pirate Firearms
business, did not get flooded. But he spent two cold nights in
his truck because he was nervous about people looting his
property.
"I haven't slept since Tuesday, because there was no
electricity and I've been sleeping in my truck. I'm heading to
Denny's for dinner, that's the big excitement," said Bellis, who
moved to a hotel on Thursday.
He said he lived through similar flooding in 1993.
Tom Rolfes, owner of Tom's 100 West Irish Pub in Manchester,
Missouri, said two people displaced by flooding in nearby Valley
Park stopped in on Thursday for a drink and stayed for three or
four.
The Meramec River broke the previous record high by more
than 4 feet (1.2 metres) on Thursday morning in Valley Park, but
the levee was sound and the water level quickly dropped by more
than 2 feet (0.6 metre) by the afternoon.
"The water came up so damn fast. The day before yesterday,
they were saying it is going to crest tonight, everything is
fine, then yesterday they are saying everyone has got to get out
of here," Rolfes said. "I have never seen it like this."