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LONDON MILLS, Ill. (AP) - A flood-swollen river in central Illinois has topped a levee and inundated parts of London Mills, prompting authorities to evacuate about half of the small town of about 500 people.

Police chief Scott Keithley says the waters overwhelmed the levee on the Spoon River overnight sending torrents of water into yards and sewers already running out of control because of the heavy rains. He says some homes are half under water.

Keithley says authorities and volunteers have given up filling sandbags in the town, a small community of farm workers.

The water has pushed debris into the town and sent abandoned cars floating.

Flash floods and rivers that have quickly risen to record or near-record levels have inundated communities around the state.

Gov. Pat Quinn has issued a disaster declaration.

MARSEILLES, Ill. (AP) - Officials say they've evacuated as many as 1,500 residents of the northern Illinois community of Marseilles after a possible levee break on the nearby Illinois River.

Connie Brooks of the Lasalle County Emergency Management Agency says the residents, including those in a nursing home, were evacuated late Thursday night after nine barges broke free of a tugboat and struck the levee. She says there is expected to be more flooding in the community of 5,100 residents southwest of Joliet when the river was expected to sometime Friday afternoon but that she did not expect that to prompt any more evacuations.

She says there were no reports of any injuries.

The Army Corps of Engineers in Rock Island says that efforts will be made Friday to remove the barges.