Floodwaters that bedeviled Iowans for the past week have flowed out of the state and are now threatening Mississippi Rivers towns in Illinois and Missouri. Flooding that began in eastern Iowa caused more than $1.5 billion in damage as it crept south toward the Mississippi. About 25,000 people in Cedar Rapids were forced from their homes, 19 buildings at the University of Iowa were flooded and water treatment plants in several cities were knocked out. Now the floodwaters are a problem for communities such as Gulfport and Clarksville, Missouri. Authorities rescued people by helicopter, boat and four-wheeler on Tuesday after the river broke through a levee in Gulfport, the Associated Press reported.
