MONTESANO, Wash. (AP) - Dead cattle. Decks torn from houses.
Shattered antique furniture. Impassible roads. Fresh-cut lumber
coated with mud.
      Those were among the sights confronting Gov. Gary Locke on a
flood damage tour Saturday east of the coastal town of Aberdeen.
      ``The damage was just devastating,'' Locke said. ``The houses
that we went to had been completely flooded out. They had four or
five feet of water in them.''
      Washington wasn't the only state coping with floods or the
threat of flooding Saturday.
      The Mississippi River, swollen by the deadly March 1 storms in
the Ohio River Valley, is expected to crest at 49.5 feet Monday at
Vicksburg, Miss., more than 6 feet above flood stage. About 50
homes already may have extensive damage, officials said.
      Lower downriver, about 700 inmates were sandbagging levees
around the Louisiana State Prison in Angola. Warden Burl Cain said
the river should crest at 61.1 feet Friday, 2 inches higher than
the 1927 record.
      If the main levee were to break, the prison would be 12 to 18
feet underwater. ``That's everything but death row and the
administration building, which is on the hill,'' he said.
      In central North Dakota, up to 4 feet of water poured through
the south side of Beulah, population 4,000, as the Knife River
rapidly flowed out of its banks Saturday night. Hundreds of homes
were evacuated. Authorities drove payloaders through the
floodwaters to rescue people.
      Most flood warnings were lifted in Washington, and the waters
were receding Saturday. But the number of homes damaged by flooding
and mudslides from four days of rain rose to nearly 500. Locke
declared emergencies in 19 counties.
      Beverly Hert said she lost more than her house, as the waters
killed 14 chickens and 30 of her 36 pet birds, including parakeets
and doves.
      The swirling, muddy water rose 5 feet in Cheryl Sipe's remodeled
living room, ruining items like her antique baby grand piano. ``It
seems like a nightmare and that it's never going to end,'' she told
the governor.