Washington - Residents of North Dakota's largest city were rushing Thursday to stack sandbags to hold off record-breaking flooding.

The Red River in Fargo, North Dakota, was predicted to crest at a record 12.3 metres on Saturday, according to the National Weather Service.

Hundreds of volunteers were filling and stacking sandbags in freezing weather in the city of 92,000, while homes were already underwater in other parts of the north-central state along the Canadian border, local newspaper the Forum reported on its website.

Water had begun to recede in the state capital, Bismarck, where 1,700 people had been evacuated, the Bismarck Tribune reported. The problem there was compounded by an ice flow on the Missouri River that officials used explosives to help clear on Wednesday.

President Barack Obama had declared much of the state a disaster area to free up aid money from Washington.

Elsewhere in the United States, spring weather spurred tornadoes.

In the Gulf Coast state of Mississippi, 20 people were injured, a church was destroyed and 60 homes damaged by a twister in the town of Magee, broadcaster CNN reported. Forecasters were warning of more possible tornadoes Friday.