Courts won't step in as corps weighs levee break

CAIRO Federal courts have decided not to stop the Army Corps of Engineers from intentionally breaching a Mississippi River levee to ease inland floodwaters.

Now residents await word from the corps on whether it will follow through with the plan, even as the agency pumps explosives into the Missouri levee.

Maj Gen. Michael Walsh says he's watching water levels before making a decision.

A breach could spare an Illinois town where residents have been forced to scurry from rising waters.

The Illinois National Guard went door to door in Cairo on Sunday to enforce the mayor's "mandatory" evacuation order. The Ohio and Mississippi rivers meet at Cairo.

As of early Monday, the Ohio had risen to 60.58 feet there eclipsing the 1937 record of 59.5 feet.