( CNN ) -- A mandatory evacuation was issued Saturday for a southwestern Illinois town threatened by the rain-swollen Mississippi River , an order that was issued as the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers weighed whether to blow up a levee and flood rural farm communities to save the town . Heavy rains have pushed the river to near-record levels , putting pressure on a tributary system that began buckling days earlier when a levee failed and flooded a handful of rural towns in southeastern Missouri . `` I know that the price being paid is high , '' said Maj. Gen. Michael Walsh of the Army Corps of Engineers , who told reporters during a briefing that he had flown over a number of the affected communities . With more rain predicted and the deterioration of a levee near Cairo , Illinois , the town 's mayor , Judson Childs , ordered his 2,800 residents to leave by midnight . Walsh told reporters that a decision whether to blow a 2-mile hole in the levee to save Cairo will be dictated by the conditions . `` The decision clock has been rolling , '' he said . But the decision whether to blow up the levee has pitted Illinois and Missouri against one another in recent days , with Missouri filing a federal lawsuit to block the Corps . Illinois joined the Corps as a defendant . A federal judge ruled Friday against Missouri , saying a 1928 law permitted the breach of a levee to ease pressure on the river . Caught in the middle , though , are residents on either side of the river , which threatens to swallow communities in Missouri and Illinois . `` People are losing their jobs . They 're losing their homes . They are losing the beds they sleep in at night . All because of this flooding , '' said Aaron Mitchell , 48 , who worries breaching the levee could overwhelm smaller tributaries that could flood his home . Mitchell is also concerned about where the water released under the Corps ' plan would go since much of the land in the area is already under water because of heavy rains . `` Where is all that water going to go ? '' he said . The plan calls for engineers to use explosives to breach the Birds Point-New Madrid levee , flooding 130,000 acres of Missouri farmland that has been designated as a flood plain . About 90 families who live in the area have already been evacuated , Missouri officials have said . Illinois and Missouri have called out hundreds of National Guard soldiers to help evacuate communities and protect vacated communities . But while government officials were divided by the decision to breach the levee , residents on both sides of the river appeared to be pulling together . Families forced to flee were being offered shelter in area hotels and at local churches , according to county officials . A car dealership in Sikeston , Missouri , was allowing residents forced to leave their homes to store furniture and other personal belongings in buildings on their lot , while some restaurants in the area were providing food to the displaced . `` Everybody is pulling together , '' Mitchell said . While Walsh said a final decision has not been made to breach the Birds Point-New Madrid levee , he has begun preparations by ordering barges that would be used in the operation to move toward the levee . Engineers have reported sand boils and seepage at a number of levees near the confluence of the Ohio and Mississippi rivers , a condition that Walsh said also threatens the integrity of the Mississippi River and Tributaries Project -- the world 's largest flood control project . `` There is water in places where we have never ever seen it before , '' Walsh said . Engineers have warned that should the rising waters of the Mississippi River overwhelm the entire flood control project , it could deluge cities , destroy crops , destroy businesses and paralyze river transportation .
Mayor orders evacuation of Illinois residents as water rises . The Army Corps of Engineers considers blowing hole in levee to ease pressure on river . Homes on either side of the river are caught in the flood .