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   Life is slowly returning to normal in the river town of Grafton, Illinois.

   The Great River Road has reopened. Raging Rivers Water Park in Grafton will reopen Tuesday morning at 10:30, one week after the flooded Mississippi River forced it to close.  

   The Mississippi continues to recede, but hasn't returned to its banks just yet.  Travel on Highway 67 between the Clark Bridge and Highway 94 in West Alton is still just one lane in each direction. 

   Flooding along the Mississippi River is forcing some St. Charles County residents out of their homes.  That's because the Lincoln-Shield levee along the Mississippi River was breached Monday evening.  

   West Alton officials and the Rivers Pointe Fire Chief issued an alert about 8:30 p.m. advising residents to evacuate.  The evacuation order is voluntary, not mandatory.

   The National Weather Service has issued flash flood warnings for eastern St. Charles County through 2:30 p.m. Tuesday. The weather service also warned that “residents living on streams and creeks should take immediate precautions.”  

   The Missouri Highway Patrol reports that southbound Highway 67 was closed between the Clark Bridge and Highway 94 as a result of the flooding after a temporary barricade erected by MoDOT failed.  Northbound 67 remains open at this hour. 

LOUISIANA, Mo. (AP) - The rising Mississippi River is forcing closure of a bridge at Louisiana, Mo.

The Missouri Department of Transportation announced Friday morning that the Champ Clark Bridge on U.S. 54 would close at 7 p.m. Friday due to flooding on the bridge approach on the Illinois side.

The closure creates an inconvenience for travelers - the next nearest river crossing is at Hannibal, Mo., 35 miles to the north.

Heavy rain has caused the Mississippi, Missouri and many other Midwestern rivers to rise above their banks. Some towns are expected to see crests of more than 10 feet above flood stage by early next week.

   ST. LOUIS (AP) - Rivers in the nation's heartland are rising yet again, and with heavy rain in the forecast, parts of Iowa, Missouri and Illinois are bracing for another round of flooding.

   The National Weather Service said Wednesday that 2 to 4 inches of rain will be common as strong storms fire up through Friday; some areas could see up to 6 inches.

   How bad things get will depend on how much rain falls and where.

   The weather service says a worst-case scenario would be widespread heavy rain along the Mississippi River north of St. Louis, and along the Missouri River. The Mississippi and many of its tributaries are already above flood stage, and the Missouri is getting close.

   Forecasters say the Mississippi could reach its highest level at St. Louis in nearly two decades.

One week after Bobbie Billups disappeared into the Mississippi River, the St. Louis Fire Department found his body.

Billups was fishing under the Merchants Bridge in downtown when he went to get something out of his car. While he was inside the car, it rolled in the river. Witnesses say Billups got out of the car, but he could not swim to the shore and bystanders could not rescue him.

Billups was 54 years old.

The search continues for a man in the Mississippi River.

Police say two men were in a car that was parked near the Merchants Bridge in north St. Louis when it started to roll. The car traveled into the water, where one man was able to get out. Fishermen helped pull him from the water. The second man was last seen floating down the river face down.

Search boats are out looking for the man.

Some 300 gallons of crude oil has spilled into the Mississippi River in Alton this morning after a vessel ran into a fleeting area near Alton, causing barges to break away.

The U.S. Coast Guard said it happened just before one this morning. 14 barges, two dry docks and two workplats broke away. The Captain of the Port closed the river from mile marker 194 to 198 after the accident. All barges, flts and dry-docks were secured and the river reopened at 2:13 a.m. Friday.

The Coast Guard is checking for any environmental damage by inspecting facilities, barges and the shoreline.

The Mississippi River is closed near St. Louis again.  This time, the problem is several barges that broke loose and collided with some docked barges.  

The Coast Guard says it happened around midnight near the confluence with the Missouri River.

 Early reports indicate that the accident may have caused a significant oil spill in the river.

  The bodies of two Missouri boaters are now been recovered after the men went missing on the Mississippi River near Hartford in southern Illinois.

   Illinois conservation police said Monday that 46-year-old Wendell Robinson of Bellefontaine Neighbors, Mo., was found Sunday in the river at Cape Girardeau, Mo. The body of the other boater, 60-year-old Mike Flythe of St. Louis, was found April 21. Authorities say the men's boat capsized near where the Mississippi and Missouri rivers meet on April 6.

   The Telegraph in Alton reports that Flythe's body was found about 15 miles away from the accident scene. Robinson's body was missing for 22 days and found about 100 miles away.

   One boy was rescued after the accident.

   A man and his teenage son are safe after being rescued from the Mississippi River Tuesday evening.  

   About 6 p.m. the two had become stranded when their johnboat snagged on debris near the Ameren Rush Island power plant about 12 miles south of Crystal City.  

   The Coast Guard was unable to launch an immediate rescue operation because their nearby boat launches were all underwater.  

   Crews from the Jefferson County R-7 Fire Department did get a boat in the water and rescued the pair just before 8 p.m.  

   Both the father and his 15 year old son were treated for exposure, but are expected to recover.