Some begin picking up pieces in Missouri after flooding

The worst of the unsafe, deadly winter flood is over in the St. Louis area, leaving residents of several waterlogged communities to spend the first day of 2016 assessing damage, cleaning up and figuring out how to bounce back – or, in some cases, where to live.

Forecasters have predicted that southern U.S. states will face increasingly grave danger in the coming days.

The Patrol is asking that drones not be flown over the St. Louis area cities of West Alton, Valley Park, Union, Arnold and Eureka, or anywhere else where a helicopter is seen.

More than 20 people have died from the flood so far. The southern suburbs were another story.

Thomas Barnard removes the registration from fiancee Jessica Klick’s 1995 Buick after floodwaters from the South Fork of the Sangamon River receded during a visit to the couple’s home in Kincaid, Ill., Thursday, Dec. 31, 2015.

Two teenagers are also missing in IL and one person is missing in Missouri, according to officials.

Water went over the top of a levee in southern Illinois’ Alexander County, prompting people to evacuate areas near the levee, the office of Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner said Friday.

The governor, who has declared 12 state counties to be disaster areas, spent New Year’s Day touring affected areas.

An all-time high-water mark was expected in southeast Missouri’s Cape Girardeau, with the rising water damaging homes, threatening a power substation, and forcing a neighboring small town to become an island – at least for a few days.

Many people have to be relocated as their homes have been either damaged or wiped out completely.

The county is also urging residents in and near East Cape Girardeau and McClure to evacuate.

Still, this flood could be different.

“We’re moving things up high and we’ve got our generators out and got some extra water”, said Dotty Kirkendoll, a clerk at Riverside Park Marina on McKellar Lake, which feeds off the Mississippi River. “We’re just not sure how many”. The move is precautionary – a levee there is holding for now but a record crest is predicted.

The levee break mostly impacted agricultural land, but water was approaching St. Mary – a town of about 360 residents.

In Wickliffe, Ky., also on the Mississippi River, residents were filling sandbags to protect homes from flooding. There were no immediate reports of damage.

Ste. Genevieve, a historic French village dating to the 18th century, remained dry thanks to a Mississippi River levee that was being constantly monitored, said Sandra Cabot, the town’s director of tourism. The National Weather Service issued a flood advisory for the Cumberland River at Dover, Tenn., through Monday evening.

Officials in Louisiana are checking levees daily, and Exxon Mobil Corp has made a decision to shut its 340,571 barrel-per-day refined products terminal in Memphis, Tennessee, as floodwaters threaten to inundate the facility just south of the city’s downtown.