Floods choking everything from oil to grain in US Midwest

Houston

DEADLY flooding across the US Midwest is disrupting everything from oil to agriculture, forcing pipelines, terminals and grain elevators to close and killing off thousands of pigs.

The floods have killed at least 20 people and closed hundreds of roads across Missouri and Illinois, according to AccuWeather Inc. Rain-swollen rivers will set records in the Mississippi River basin through much of January. Some 50 miles (80 kilometres) of the Illinois River have been closed, according to the US Coast Guard, as well as 81 miles of the Mississippi River in two segments.

The flooding is the worst since May 2011, when rising water on the Mississippi and its tributaries deluged cities, slowed barge traffic and threate…