Midwest governors today called on the White House for more help to counter billions of dollars in damages from floods that drowned parts of the US farm heartland and drove thousands from their homes.
The request came as the flood threat in a key region of the world's biggest food and grains exporter continued to ease, though another levee in Missouri burst early on Tuesday sending the swollen Mississippi River into a relatively small, unpopulated area.
In Indiana, Governor Mitch Daniels said the heavy rains that began at the end of May likely triggered "the worst agriculture disaster in state history," with one in every 10 acres of corn and soybeans lost at a cost of at least $800 million.
Across the region up to five million acres of corn and soybeans may have been lost, fuelling worries that world food inflation will worsen even as energy prices set records.
Iowa Governor Chet Culver said his state suffered by conservative estimates "billions of dollars in damages" of all types, with more than 38,000 residents displaced.
Mr Culver, Mr Daniels and the governors of Wisconsin and Illinois made the comments in a letter to President George W. Bush asking him to lower the amount of money the states have to put up to match federal assistance, saying the disasters have pushed their budgets to the breaking point.
They requested that the state share of such assistance be set at 10 per cent - with Washington paying the other 90 per cent - instead of 25 per cent local and 75 per cent federal as usually required.
The US Army Corps of Engineers in St. Louis said the Mississippi River had crested upstream and would do the same farther south during the week.