Massive flooding extends across Amercian South and Midwest

Massive flooding extends across Amercian South and Midwest - CNN.com: "(CNN) -- An engorged Mississippi river spilled out onto huge swaths of farmland in the American South and Midwest on Wednesday, creating massive flooding from Minnesota to Louisiana.

Heavy rains spawned flooding that meteorologists say is not expected to fully relent until early June. Areas along the Ohio River Basin also experienced heavy flooding as residents evacuated low-lying areas across the region.

The final crevasse, or break, in the Birds Point-New Madrid levee should be opened by Wednesday night, according to a statement from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Earlier, the Corps intentionally breached the levee on the Mississippi River, helping ease unprecedented flood pressure on other areas.

The Ohio River level had dropped about 1.7 feet at Cairo, Illinois, since Monday afternoon, before the blast, but that is expected to level off later on Wednesday.

The breach, created when engineers detonated explosives late Monday night at Birds Point, Missouri, is sending 396,000 cubic feet per second of water onto 200 square miles of fertile Missouri farmland."