By Nick Carey

EAST HANNIBAL, Ill., June 19 (Reuters) - Toiling day and night, thousands wage a war against water with sand, bulldozers and even their bare hands.

Atop a section of a 54-mile-long (87-km) levee overlooking the rushing Mississippi River, Russ Koeller surveyed this week's handiwork: a ridge of sand covered with plastic and sandbags guarding this Illinois hamlet and land growing with crops worth $150 million at harvest.

"Things could get very serious, very quickly," he said of the streams of water that frequently form on the levee's gently sloping backside, washing the sand away.

The rushing current also scours the base of the levee, threatening to undermine it.

At the point where Koeller stood, the river broke through in 1993 in the last great flood along the Mississippi, flooding 46,000 acres (18,620 hectares) of prime farmland.

"With commodity prices where they are, you could say that's around $1,000 per acre. So if this levee were to go, you're talking about $150 million in damages to farm land alone," Russ Koeller said.

Prices of corn and other commodities have soared because millions of acres of farmland have been ruined by the worst Midwest flooding in 15 years.

Every few hours around the clock some 75 bulldozers are driven up and down the line, reinforcing any perceived weak points with fresh sand. Some 5,000 volunteers -- and around 400 prison inmates -- do patchwork. They have raised the levee to a height of 35 feet (11 metres), hopefully beyond the river's crest.

"Fifty-four miles is a lot of ground to cover and you have watch every single inch," Koeller's son Chris added.

Amid all the hard work in the searing sunshine there is hope.

The river level has fallen 2 feet (0.7 metre) since Wednesday because of levee breaches further upstream, creating doubts about crest projections.

"There is some quiet optimism here that it's not going to be so bad," said local farmer Tom Schwartz.

A few miles downstream in the town of Hull, Illinois -- which flooded in 1993 -- many locals took no chances and have moved their belongings to high ground.

"We're ready to get out of here fast," said Dave Spitaleri, owner of the Railsplitter Inn in this community of 500.

The restaurant has one table left and most shelves in the store are bare.

Hull Mayor Sam White recalled that his farm flooded in 1993, destroying his crops and filling his house with 3 feet (1 meter) of water.

"Everyone is much better prepared than in 1993 and I'm not planning on moving until the river chases me out," White said. "But I don't think the levee is going to break this time around."

"I only hope I don't end up having to eat those words," he added. (Editing by Andrew Stern and Jackie Frank)

AlertNet news is provided by