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   Life is slowly returning to normal in the river town of Grafton, Illinois.

   The Great River Road has reopened. Raging Rivers Water Park in Grafton will reopen Tuesday morning at 10:30, one week after the flooded Mississippi River forced it to close.  

   The Mississippi continues to recede, but hasn't returned to its banks just yet.  Travel on Highway 67 between the Clark Bridge and Highway 94 in West Alton is still just one lane in each direction. 

New information on the second levee breach near West Alton and Rivers Pointe.

Officials now say the breach is very near the confluence, but on the Mississippi River side of the levee system. The breach is between 100 and 150 feet wide.

There is a voluntary evacuation order in effect for over 40 homes that are east of Highway 67.

Water has moved about two miles inside the levee.

   Flooding along the Mississippi River is forcing some St. Charles County residents out of their homes.  That's because the Lincoln-Shield levee along the Mississippi River was breached Monday evening.  

   West Alton officials and the Rivers Pointe Fire Chief issued an alert about 8:30 p.m. advising residents to evacuate.  The evacuation order is voluntary, not mandatory.

   The National Weather Service has issued flash flood warnings for eastern St. Charles County through 2:30 p.m. Tuesday. The weather service also warned that “residents living on streams and creeks should take immediate precautions.”  

   The Missouri Highway Patrol reports that southbound Highway 67 was closed between the Clark Bridge and Highway 94 as a result of the flooding after a temporary barricade erected by MoDOT failed.  Northbound 67 remains open at this hour. 

St. Charles officials are now urging residents of West Alton to prepare for a possible evacuation. The area is expected to flood, but the severity remains to be seen. Residents should be making plans to secure their homes and property if an evacuation order is necessary.

The call for sandbaggers at Portage Des Sioux had been answered.

St. Charles County officials say no additional volunteers are needed. KTRS's Michael Golde was at the scene earlier today and said that within an hour of the request for help on Monday morning, the number of sandbaggers nearly doubled.

Officials say the situation could change, it is unknown how long work on the sandbagging will continue. 

LOUISIANA, Mo. (AP) - The rising Mississippi River is forcing closure of a bridge at Louisiana, Mo.

The Missouri Department of Transportation announced Friday morning that the Champ Clark Bridge on U.S. 54 would close at 7 p.m. Friday due to flooding on the bridge approach on the Illinois side.

The closure creates an inconvenience for travelers - the next nearest river crossing is at Hannibal, Mo., 35 miles to the north.

Heavy rain has caused the Mississippi, Missouri and many other Midwestern rivers to rise above their banks. Some towns are expected to see crests of more than 10 feet above flood stage by early next week.

   ST. LOUIS (AP) - Rivers in the nation's heartland are rising yet again, and with heavy rain in the forecast, parts of Iowa, Missouri and Illinois are bracing for another round of flooding.

   The National Weather Service said Wednesday that 2 to 4 inches of rain will be common as strong storms fire up through Friday; some areas could see up to 6 inches.

   How bad things get will depend on how much rain falls and where.

   The weather service says a worst-case scenario would be widespread heavy rain along the Mississippi River north of St. Louis, and along the Missouri River. The Mississippi and many of its tributaries are already above flood stage, and the Missouri is getting close.

   Forecasters say the Mississippi could reach its highest level at St. Louis in nearly two decades.

   Dozens of St. Charles residents are homeless after their apartments flooded during Monday night's heavy rainfall.  

   Residents at the Riverview Lane Apartments spent Tuesday cleaning up and trying to salvage what they could.  But single mom Jamie Roa told Fox 2 News that losing most of her possessions isn't the hardest part of her ordeal.  It's not having a home for her two daughters.

   "My kids are crying to me, 'Mommy, I want to come home.  Please come get me.  Please come get me.'  And I can't go and get them," she said.  "Because I don't have a home to bring them home to."

   This isn't the first time the apartments have flooded. Recently, property owner, Sheila Stumps installed new storm drains to take rain run off water away from the building, but she and residents told Fox 2 News that the city sewers keep backing up.

   To make matters worse, some residents say they've been denied flood insurance because their building sits on a flood plain.  Other residents say there's nothing in their leases to indicate the risk of flooding.

   Stump insists that she informs everyone of the risk verbally.

   Stumps says she’ll get the tenants back into their homes as soon as possible, but admits that it will take time.

WASHINGTON (AP) - Eleven Illinois counties will get some federal money to recover from the flooding in the state that occurred in late April and early May.

In a news release, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security's Federal Emergency Management Agency announced the White House has made federal funds available to supplement state and local recovery efforts. The assistance can include grants for temporary housing and home repairs, low-cost loans to cover uninsured property losses and other programs that help businesses and home owners.

The federal aid will be shared by Cook, DeKalb, DuPage, Fulton, Grundy, Kane, Kendall, Lake, LaSalle, McHenry and Will counties. And other areas might also receive assistance if the state requests it and further damage assessments reveal it is warranted.

For further information, contact http://www.DisasterAssistance.gov or call 1-800-621-FEMA (3362).

ST. LOUIS (AP) - Farmers in the nation's breadbasket who only recently were praying for an end to a withering drought are now pining for enough sunshine and heat to dry their muddy fields in time to plant their corn and other crops.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture says only 12 percent of the nation's cornfields have been planted. That's about a quarter of the amount farmers had planted by this point in the season over the last five years.

In Iowa, which is the nation's biggest corn producer, only 8 percent of the corn crop is in the ground. That's down from 62 percent at this point last year.

Farmer John Reifsteck says if he has to wait much longer, he may have to plant less corn on his 1,800-acre central Illinois farm.