4:30 p.m. update
The rising Mississippi River and its tributaries are threatening to overtop 19 federal levees in the St. Louis area.
Army Corps of Engineers officials said Tuesday that the threatened areas include Perry and Ste. Genevieve counties in Missouri, and Randolph County in Illinois.
The levee protecting the historic downtown of Ste. Genevieve is not believed to be threatened.
Federal officials provided the update at a briefing with U.S. Rep. John Shimkus, an Illinois Republican, at the Corps' emergency operations center in downtown St. Louis.
Earlier, the Corps said it is releasing a record amount of water from the Table Rock Lake dam in response to recent flooding.
The Corps said it was releasing 72,000 cubic feet of water per second on Tuesday. The previous record was 69,000 cubic feet per second during floods in 2011.
The Springfield News-Leader reported that means nearly 539,000 gallons are going out of the dam into Lake Taneycomo every second.
Corps spokesman Miles Brown said the lake is still rising, causing more water to rush through 10 spillway gates and the hydropower turbines. He said the Corps currently doesn't plan to open more floodgates.
Read Wednesday's Arkansas Democrat-Gazette for a full story on today's weather.
EARLIER
The U.S. Coast Guard has closed a portion of the Mississippi River near St. Louis due to flooding.
The river was shut down Tuesday to all vessel traffic from mile marker 179 to mile marker 184.
Capt. Martin Malloy cited high water levels and fast currents as the river continues to approach near-record levels in St. Louis.
Meanwhile, Gov. Jay Nixon announced that the number of flood-related deaths has risen to 13 during a visit Tuesday to Perry County, where a record crest along the river is predicted.
Nixon did not give details about the latest confirmed fatalities, but said nearly all of those who died in Missouri were in vehicles that drove onto flooded roadways.
He urged motorists to stay away from roads with even low levels of water because fast-moving current can push cars and trucks off the roadway.
At West Alton, near the convergence of the Missouri and Mississippi rivers, water came over the levee Tuesday morning.
The mayor on Tuesday ordered anyone who has not yet evacuated to get out.
About 520 people live in West Alton, a Mississippi River town about 20 miles north of St. Louis. Mayor William Richter urged evacuations over the weekend after it became clear the river would rise so high that the levee couldn't hold back the water.