Soldiers and volunteers packed sand bags Wednesday in a frantic effort to stave off floodwaters in the US state of Missouri, where 13 people have been killed and several towns have been engulfed.

The Mississippi River is already more than 14 feet (4.2 meters) above flood stage in some areas and is forecast to rise another eight feet before cresting today, according to the National Weather Service.

"We've never seen water this high," Missouri Governor Jay Nixon told CNN. "We're in a massive flood fight."

Don Smith, the mayor of Rockaway Beach, a small resort town in the southern part of the state, calling the flooding " absolutely devastating" and pleaded for help.

"I don't even know how we're going to deal with the clean-up," Smith told CNN. "One of the business owners has an antique shop: there were minnows inside." The images shown by local media were dramatic.

Muddy water inundated homes and businesses nearly to the rooftops. Hundreds of volunteers formed human chains to spread sandbags on levees before the rapidly rising water could overflow them.

A man and his dog were rescued by boat from the roof of a home that was almost completely submerged near the Missouri town of Eureka. Another man was towed out of the floodwaters with his legs dangling out the back window of his pickup.

Nixon urged residents to stay out of the frigid and fastmoving waters. Most of the 13 victims in Missouri died when their cars were swept away.