Water overtops Illinois levee

(CNN) - Water spilled over a levee on the Mississippi River on Wednesday, pouring into west-central Illinois, the Army Corps of Engineers for the Mississippi Valley said.

The Corps of Engineers said that the levee had been overtopped, but local officials had a different account, reporting that the levee - near Meyer, Illinois - breached in two places, pouring water into Hancock and Adams counties.

"It's kind of a sad day," said Sheriff John Jefferson of Hancock County. "People put in a lot of manpower (to build up the levees) and all was lost."

The floodwater will cover thousands of acres of farm land from Warsaw to Quincy - about a 25-mile stretch of the river. All residents in the area had been evacuated, Jefferson said.