12:10 p.m.
Floodwaters are washing away roads, making some communities unreachable and forcing drivers to make time-consuming detours in parts of the Midwest.
Flooding has closed more than 100 roads in Missouri. And 70 miles (112.6 kilometres) of Interstate 29 is closed from St. Joseph to the Iowa border, complicating efforts to access the Cooper Nuclear Station along the Missouri River in Nebraska.
Some plant workers travel from Atchison County, Missouri, where a levee breach grew larger overnight. The county's emergency management says so many roads are closed in the region that residents are travelling more than 100 miles (161 kilometres) out of their way to get to the plant.
The flooding is due to melting snow and heavy rains that hit the region last week.
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10:25 a.m.
Authorities say river flooding has surrounded a northern Illinois neighbourhood with water, prompting residents to escape in boats.
The National Weather Service says the flooding is due to melting snow and recent heavy rains that recently hit the Midwest.
People living in the Illinois village of Roscoe say children have walked through high floodwaters or kayaked to catch school buses amid flooding along the Rock River.
About 40 miles (64 kilometres) away in Freeport, authorities say rescue workers have helped more than 170 people evacuate their homes since Saturday due to flooding along the Pecatonica River. The river is at its highest level since 1933.
Flooding along rivers in western Michigan also has damaged dozens of homes and businesses.
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10 a.m.
The president of the Nebraska Farm Bureau says farm and ranch losses due to the devastating flooding could reach $1 billion in the state.
Steve Nelson estimates $400 million in crop losses because of crops that will be planted late, if at all. He also estimates as much as $500 million in livestock losses as Nebraska and other Midwestern states struggle with swollen rivers and breached levees following heavy rain and snowmelt.
Nelson tells the Omaha World-Herald that he wouldn't be surprised if “lost agriculture numbers go over a billion dollars.”
Agriculture amounts to 20% of Nebraska's gross domestic product and provides one of every four jobs in the state.
Nelson says flooding is costing the state's cattle industry $1 million a day in costs that usually aren't covered by insurance.
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9:20 a.m.
Vice president Mike Pence is headed to the Midwest to view flood damage as farmers raise concerns that busted levees won't be fixed before the traditional spring flood season.
Pence is scheduled to visit Omaha, Nebraska, late Tuesday afternoon. Hundreds of homes are damaged, and tens of thousands of acres are inundated with water.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers says rivers breached at least a dozen levees in Nebraska, Iowa and Missouri. Flooding is expected through the week as high water levels flow down the Missouri River.
Corps official Jud Kneuvean says levees usually take six months to repair. That means most likely won't be fixed by mid-May, the start of the most flood-prone part of the year.
The Nebraska Farm Bureau says farm and ranch losses could reach $1 billion in Nebraska alone.
The Associated Press
