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• Already, high water has closed hundreds of roads and swamped hundreds of thousands of acres of farmland as planting season approaches. Transportation officials are planning to close the bridge at Louisiana, Mo. -- about 75 miles north of St. Louis -- at noon Saturday, citing rising water on the eastern approach.
• After the devastating Mississippi River floods of 1993, the government bought out thousands of homes that were once in harm's way, tore them down and replaced them with green space where development is not allowed. New and bigger levees have been built, and flood walls reinforced.
• Clarksville, Mo., is one of the few places at the mercy of the river. The quaint community of 442 filled with century-old historic homes has no flood wall or levee. But in 2008, it purchased a flood protection system that allows for a levee to be constructed -- aluminum slats filled with sand -- if the river rises.
• The waters have risen too quickly to install the system this time, so volunteers are using gravel, plastic overlay and sandbags to protect the business district, and they're layering sandbags around threatened homes, the American Legion hall and the Catholic church.
• "This just shocked us all because it just came up so quickly," alderwoman Sue Lindemann said. "We found out about the crest prediction Wednesday and we started sandbagging that night. It's going to be touch and go but we're hoping."
• Lindemann said Clarksville has opted against a levee or flood wall partly because of the cost, and partly because residents like the view.
• Also unprotected is Grafton, Ill., a tourist town near St. Louis that sits at the convergence of the Mississippi and Illinois rivers. But flooding happens so often there that people are taking it in stride.
• "If you live here, you understand the river," Mayor Tom Thompson said. "We'll get through this."
• The main thoroughfare leading into town -- the Great River Road -- was expected to be closed off by midday Saturday, and riverside merchants were clearing out merchandise. Among them was Laurie Wild, 51, who scrambled with volunteers to save her artisan shop's wares -- jewelry, pottery, textiles and wood carvings.
• "It's a mess," the St. Louis transplant said. "We knew what we were getting into when we moved here. It's a beautiful town, and we'll be here after."
• On Friday afternoon, the Army Corps of Engineers said most of the locks and dams from the Quad Cities to near St. Louis were closed due to the flood, effectively halting barge and other traffic on that part of the Mississippi. Four Illinois River locks were also shut down.
• Widespread flash-flooding accompanied the week's rains. An 80-year-old woman

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