A move to blow up a levee in order to protect Cairo from overwhelming flood levels will be held until Tuesday.

Flood levels in Cairo, located between the swelling Ohio and Mississippi Rivers, are expected to crest at 60.5 feet Tuesday and stay there through at least Thursday, according to the National Weather Service.

Meanwhile, Missouri Attorney General Chris Koster has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to block the Army Corps of Engineers’ plan to protect Cairo by blowing a two-mile wide hole in Birds Point Levee, located in southeast Missouri’s Mississippi County, according to the Associated Press. The state’s attempts to block the plan was rejected by a federal district judge and an appellate court. Challenges from severe weather have caused volunteers to join with local and state government officials to aid residents.

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Missouri officials said if the levee is destroyed, floodwaters would damage 100 homes, 130,000 acres of land and create a silt layer that would take years to clear. If the Supreme Court blocks the corps’ plan, Cairo, a town of 2,800 people, would be completely underwater.

Lt. Gov. Sheila Simon said if the water comes into Cairo the effects will be devastating.

“It wouldn’t just be wet in Cairo,” Simon said. “The first floor of every house in Cairo would be completely filled with water.”

Cairo Mayor Judson Childs issued a mandatory evacuation Saturday.

A flood wall protects Cairo up to 64 feet. However, the corps fears water pressure could compromise the wall and the levees that protect other parts of the city.

Childs said he was relieved the appeals court decided Saturday to allow the corps to breech the levee if necessary.

“I’ve been saying all along that we can’t take land over lives,” Childs said.

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Koster said he wants to exhaust all potential legal remedies.

The 230 people who live in the southeast Missouri flood plain behind the levee have already been evacuated from their homes, a spokesman for Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon said. Some of the farmers whose roughly 130,000 acres of land would be inundated moved out what they could Saturday, assuming the corps would have no choice but to blow the hole.

Bob Anderson, a spokesman for the Army Corps of Engineers, said they are still weighing options and the final decision would be based on the river’s height as more rain falls, and as water backs up in reservoirs upstream.

The corps started to move a pair of barges topped with explosive sludge Saturday to Wickliffe, Ky., located across from the Birds Point.

The corps have received orders to load the pipes on the barges with the explosive material, he said. The process will take at least 20 hours to complete and the materials in the mix are not dangerous until they are ignited. The corps have been ordered not to ignite the mixture until further notice, he said.

State officials in Missouri are now focused on protecting homes, agricultural equipment and other property left behind in the heavily farmed flood plain below the levee. In addition to people evacuated from the floodway, as many as 800 were asked to leave surrounding areas and more than 600 Missouri National Guard troops are on standby to help local law enforcement at checkpoints in the area.

Saturday, before the National Weather Service report was released, Cairo police Chief Gary Hankins said an estimated 1,000 residents remained within city limits. Police said after the evacuation notice was issued there was no indication that anyone defied the order, but officers still planned to go door to door.

Lorrie Hesselrode, Cairo city clerk, said the town is silent after its residents were forced to leave their homes Saturday because of sand boils and rising floodwaters.

Sand boils occur when high-pressure water pushes under flood walls and levees and wells up through the soil behind them. Hesselrode said the boils are large and frightening.

“We’ve had sand boils before but nothing like this,” Hesselrode told the AP. “It is under control but other boils have popped up.”

Hesselrode said the boil area appeared to hold throughout the night.

Simon said the situation is bad for Illinois, Missouri and anyone who lives on the border of the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers because the floods have already caused so much damage to crop lands.

“When you see what’s going on in southern Illinois, you see there’s a lot of flooded crop lands without any of these levees breaking,” Simon said.

Simon and U.S. Congressman Jerry Costello, D-Illinois, spent time Saturday in Cairo with city officials and volunteered their time by sand bagging and talking to the community.

Simon said one positive aspect from the devastation was seeing community members and local and state government officials coming together to help those in need.

Hesselrode said volunteers are not necessary in Cairo because the National Guard is already there. She said anyone who wants to help should focus on surrounding areas.

About 80 miles northeast in Old Shawneeville, residents need help to fill sandbags to try and contain leaks at the town’s levee, Saline County Lt. Sheriff Tracey Felty said. With the Ohio River at just under 53 feet there and not expected to rise above 54.5 when it crests Tuesday, the 60-foot-tall levee should not be topped, he said.