BONNERS FERRY, Idaho (AP) - Boundary County farmers are watching as they lose everything from pink beans to winter wheat to canola to the advancing Kootenai River.

And local officials say the region's flooding may not have peaked yet.

The flooding is the result of a heavy snow pack and last week's extensive thunderstorms in Montana and Canada. The resulting water prompted the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to release a near-record amount of water from Montana's Libby Dam last week, increasing water levels in the Kootenai River. More releases are likely to come.

Farmer Dallas Amoth already has 35 acres of winter wheat crop underwater, and he's losing more each day - a loss he estimates at about $24,000 so far. The loss comes at a time when farmers are already stretched by the high cost of diesel and fertilizer.

“We have a $200,000 question mark hanging in front of us right now,” Amoth told The Spokesman-Review. “At the current water level, we're surviving.”

The high water prompted Idaho Gov. Jim Risch to declare a state of emergency on Friday.

Officials say the flows pose a risk to the extensive dike system that protects farmland along the Kootenai River as it flows into British Columbia. As much as $2.5 million in crop damage is believed to have already occurred in the past two weeks.

Water is seeping under the dikes, washing out acres of crops every day, officials said, and because the dikes haven't been well maintained since the Libby Dam opened in 1975, locals are worried they may break, causing widespread flooding.

Two weeks ago, an 800-foot section of dike just across from the downtown area started to erode. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has already spent $650,000 fixing the section.

“It's very full,” Risch said after flying over the river. “From the air you can see a little bit of spillage. It's going to get worse before it gets better.”

Forecasters are predicting rain showers for the next several days, and that could swell the Kootenai River to two feet above flood level.

Volunteers and sandbags are at the ready in case the river reaches 1,765 feet in elevation - one foot above flood stage. That's the level at which eroding riverbanks and other serious damage would start, officials said.

Amoth's farmland - along with about 2,000 acres of farmland across the valley - is outside the dikes, leaving it unprotected by the berms constructed in the 1920s to keep the river off the crops.

Inside the dikes, farmers have fought seepage problems for nearly a month, since the water first rose above 1,758 feet. Many are trying to pump out the water.

But all the saturation is causing problems for local farmers, said Bonners Ferry Mayor Darrell Kerby. In a sense, it's simply the land returning to its natural state. The valley was once a lakebed, and that's why soils in the region are so fertile. It's also why farmers generally can't get crop insurance.

If the worst case scenario occurs - and the dikes break - many farmers will be out of business.

“We'd be flooded out, and I would have to go work for Les Schwab,” said Randy Peterson, who farms about 2,000 acres with his father, Larry Peterson.

The National Weather Service has issued a hazardous weather warning for northern Idaho, though it cancelled its flood watch for the Kootenai River. Still, forecasters said strong thunderstorms predicted for northern Idaho and Eastern Washington on Monday could excaberate the problem.