QUINCY, Ill. – As floodwaters slowly recede in some Illinois counties along the Mississippi River, they can’t move fast enough for officials keeping a weary eye on damaged crops and strained levees.

No homes or businesses had been lost by Tuesday along the 54-mile Sny levee south of Quincy, but seepage damaged already-planted crops and has kept farmers from planting more, officials said.

The Sny levee spans three counties – Adams, Pike and Calhoun.

Blake Roderick, executive director of the Pike and Scott County farm bureaus, said the damage in Pike County and its 300,000 crop acres has been heavy.

“We’re probably close to 20 to 25 percent yield loss in this county on corn,” he said. And “beans will have significant yield loss because of the late planting.”

Pike County typically produces 160,000 to 170,000 bushels of corn, he said. The dollar loss will depend on the price of corn in the fall, but at corn’s currently high prices, Pike County could be off nearly $300,000.

Just south in Monroe and Calhoun counties, officials are waiting for the water to fully recede to assess the crop damage.

“It’s all under water and probably won’t be planted any more this year,” said Monroe County Sheriff Daniel Kelley. “They’ve got wheat that they can’t harvest. They’ve got corn that’s probably going to drown out from too much water.”

In Calhoun County, Sheriff Bill Heffington lamented a weather forecast that called for the one thing farmers and residents don’t need – more water.

“All this rain’s coming, it ain’t going to help anything,” he said, noting the Illinois River, a Mississippi feeder, went up three inches Monday night.

And not all of the Mississippi has finished rising. The river isn’t expected to complete its crest at Grafton, Alton, or Chester – in Randolph County south of St. Louis – until Thursday and Friday, according to forecasters.

But even at Chester, where the river will crest last, the prognosis has improved. The river originally was forecast to crest at 42 feet, but that’s dropped to 38 feet.

“It’s good for us, but it’s at someone else’s expense,” said Randolph County Sheriff Fred Frederking. “Had them levees not broke up north of us, we would have had problems.”

Workers dumped rock against a floodgate at Kellogg as a precaution, but Frederking said he expects the area to be “in good shape.” Chester Mayor Marty Bert said workers are sandbagging the Menard Correctional Facility, though he expects no damage to the structure.

Work also continues along the Sny levee, where the river has crested and was beginning to slightly recede. The nearly 1,000 Army National Guard soldiers, inmates and volunteers working there were in “maintenance mode” Tuesday, said Mike Reed, superintendent of the Sny Island Drainage District.

“We’re doing fine,” Reed said. “We’re working hard, but everything right now is in good shape.”

Workers have been sandbagging and putting down plastic and straw, Reed said, adding that they’ve finished elevating the 54-mile levee that protects about 150,000 acres.

In 1993, a break in the Sny flooded Hull, a town of about 440, and shut down Interstate 72.

“That’s a major transportation artery that could be affected in addition to … Hull,” said Patti Thompson, spokeswoman for the Illinois Emergency Management Agency.

Officials said they can only hope the rivers recede peacefully and take pressure off the levees.

“The 800-pound gorilla in the room is the levees holding,” Roderick said. “If the levees fail, we’ve got total crop loss in different parts of the county.”