Towns all over Southeast Missouri sandbagging and watching levees

SIKESTON, Mo. (AP) -- The flood of 2011 is proving troublesome for virtually every river town in southeast Missouri - and even for dozens of communities situated far from the waterways.

More rain fell Wednesday. Some parts of the region have received 15 inches of rain since late last week. Hundreds of homes and businesses are already taking in water or are threatened.

The Mississippi River was rising toward near-record crests. But the insidious nature of this flood is that you don't have to live near a river to be affected.

Southeast Missouri below Cape Girardeau is a delta - thousands of square miles of land swampy by nature anyway. Now, in many places, water spreads as far as the eye can see.

That includes portions of Sikeston, several miles from the Mississippi. Backwater from drainage ditches is threatening about 60 homes.