Staying above water
As the swollen Mississippi River continues to ravage
the Midwest, members of the Missouri Army National
Guard—using traffic pylons as funnels—fill sandbags
to prevent more flooding in Clarksville (pop. 440) on
May 31. Water levels in some locations along the river
have approached records set during the Great Flood
of 1993, one of the worst in American history, and the
flooding is expected to continue for weeks to come.Photograph by Hilary Swift—The New York Times/Redux
▶ For more of our best photography, visit time.com/lightbox
LightBox