Mayor orders evacuation of flood-threatened city

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MSNBC.com:

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — The mayor of a small southern Illinois city threatened by two swollen rivers has ordered all residents to leave by midnight because a lot of river water is bubbling up from the ground at a spot behind a levee.

Cairo (KAY'-roh) Mayor Judson Childs issued the mandatory evacuation order late Saturday afternoon after officials with the Army Corps of Engineers and the city determined that the sand boil near the levee had grown dangerously large.

Sand boils are spots where high-pressure water pushes under flood walls and levees and wells up through the soil behind them. They're a potential sign of trouble.

Childs says that the boil is stable but will continue to be closely monitored.

Cairo sits at the southern tip of Illinois along the Ohio River.

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