LAKE DELTON, Wis. – An earthen dam along a man-made lake gave way under severe flooding Monday, unleashing a powerful current that ripped several homes off their foundations and down the Wisconsin River.

Floodwater threatened dams across the Midwest, and military crews joined desperate sandbagging operations to hold back Indiana streams surging toward record levels. Stormy weekend weather was blamed for 10 deaths, most in the Midwest.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers said Monday it would close a 250-mile stretch of the Mississippi River – from Fulton, Ill., to Clarksville, Mo. – as soon as Thursday because of flooding, bringing barge traffic to a halt.

The closure could last up to two weeks, corps spokesman Ron Fournier said.

In Wisconsin, an embankment forming the side of the man-made Lake Delton failed, and the water poured out into the nearby Wisconsin River. The 245-acre lake nearly emptied, sweeping away three homes and tearing apart two others.

“It’s horrible. There’s no way we could stop it,” said Thomas Diehl, a Lake Delton village trustee. “The breach is between 300 and 400 feet wide. The volume (of water) was just so great there wasn’t anything anyone could do.”

About 20 resorts surround the lake, which was about 10 feet deep.

A couple thousand people in Columbia County about 30 miles north of Madison were urged to evacuate below the Wyocena and Pardeeville dams, said Pat Beghin, a spokesman for the county’s emergency management.

A new storm system was headed toward the Ohio Valley from the southern Plains on Monday – Oklahoma got up to 6 inches of rain by late morning and utilities reported nearly 5,000 customers blacked out – and the National Weather Service said as much as 3 inches of rain could fall on already waterlogged Indiana late Monday.

The weather service posted a tornado warning for south-central Illinois and a severe thunderstorm warning for Indiana.

Some 200 Indiana National Guard members and 140 Marines and sailors joined local emergency agencies Monday in sandbagging a levee of the White River at Elnora, about 100 miles southwest of Indianapolis. The White River was forecast to crest Tuesday at nearby Newberry at 16 feet above flood stage.

President Bush late Sunday declared a major disaster in 29 Indiana counties. Iowa Gov. Chet Culver said nearly a third of his state’s 99 counties need federal help.

Wisconsin Gov. Jim Doyle had declared 30 counties in a state of emergency Monday.