ST. LOUIS (AP) - The rain-swollen Mississippi River is slowly retreating in the nation's flood-weary midsection, but the prospect of rains threatens to keep the waterway high for some time.
The National Weather Service says the river has crested around St. Louis and to the north along the Illinois towns of Grafton and Alton.
But there's no such luck south of St. Louis, where the Missouri communities of Cape Girardeau and Dutchtown may not see the river levels peak until sometime Friday.
Weather service hydrologist Mark Fuchs says rains are possible in coming days in a swath from Nebraska and Iowa eastward to the Great Lakes. That could add to water levels in the Missouri River and the Mississippi into which it feeds.