QUINCY - The gathering of some 1,300 volunteers, state employees and prison inmates made this Mississippi River town a hub in the effort to contain the raging floodwaters that have submerged parts of the Midwest.

The contingent of flood fighters has been growing in size since Friday when levees in Iowa, Missouri and Illinois began crumbling under the pressure of the expanding river.

While families are evacuating their homes to the north of Quincy, those downstream continued to bag sand and build makeshift walls to prevent any river rises from drowning their communities.

"We're sending them to multiple locations where there are worries about further damage," said state Sen. John Sullivan, D-Rushville, who was among those helping coordinate the battle. "We were sending bags all the way up to Warsaw, but several levees broke last night, so we're not sending any more."

Among those who gathered in and around Quincy were 304 inmates and another 24 prison guards. The inmates welcomed the opportunity to get out of their cells and help save homes and communities along the river banks.

Herman Allensworth was organizing a group of 10 workers in nearby Kinderhook until 24 inmates and three guards arrived on the scene Wednesday. The group was shipping and bagging three truck loads of sand bags an hour.

More than one million sand bags have been sent to various communities in the last week, from Quincy and the surrounding area.

The flooding has brought out more than just paid state workers, National Guard members and prison inmates to fill sandbags and shore up water-logged levees.

A diverse group of volunteers were working to keep things dry in Quincy. Hundreds of people gathered in the sun outside the civic center here to fill sandbags under the watch of Red Cross members and the Illinois Air National Guard.

Carla Gosney, a volunteer coordinator for Adams County, said the flooding has brought people from as far away as New Jersey, New Mexico, Utah, Colorado, and even England and Trinidad.

"It was sort of surprising, but these kinds of events always bring out the best in people," Gosney said.

Members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints missions from Quincy, Macomb, and Peoria participated alongside residents of Quincy.

Some members of the group, like Kip Wardell of South Jordan, Utah, came from out of state. "We're all just trying to help out with people's homes and stuff. Right now we're just collecting all of our efforts here," Wardell said.

Retirees Don and Cinda Hayes came from Palmer, southwest of Taylorville, once they heard of the flooding. Working in disaster relief is nothing new to the couple, who also helped out during the flooding in 1993.

Don Hayes said it was good to get out and help others.

"Now that we're retired we pick and choose these things," Hayes said. "We just want to help out. If somebody needs help, we just go."

Kenneth Lowe can be reached at kenneth.lowe@lee.net or 789-0865. Kartikay Mehrotra can be reached at kartikay.mehrotra@lee.net or 789-0865.