Background
Since February, the National Weather Service’s Quad Cities bureau has been tracking flood risks in Eastern Iowa. Its forecasts gradually increased as March remained cold and northern snowpacks grew deeper.
By the beginning of April, the bureau’s senior service hydrologist Matt Wilson warned that “worst-case scenario” conditions were approaching communities along the Mississippi River: above normal temperatures that would melt the historic snowpacks and send excess water downstream.
Those projections became reality.
From the end of April into the beginning of May, the Mississippi River crested along Iowa. The state accounted for 11 of the 58 flood warnings the weather service issued across Iowa, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Illinois and Missouri. River communities up and down the waterway battled flooding. Businesses prepped, and were disrupted by the high water levels.
But flood infrastructure held up well on both sides of the river, with only minor breaches in Camanche and at the Iowa Department of Natural Resource’s Green Island Wildlife Management Area.
What’s happened since?
Now about two weeks after the Mississippi River crested along Eastern Iowa, the waterway is slowly receding to manageable levels.
The locks and dams along the Mississippi River have since reopened, allowing barge traffic to commence again. The structures were closed for several weeks during the worst of the flooding.
As of its Thursday morning update, the weather service’s Quad Cities bureau reported these locations were still in minor flood stage — defined to have minimal or no property damage, but possibly some public threat:
- Rock Island, Ill., which is across the river from Davenport and had crested at 21.51 feet on May 1 — its seventh highest on record.
- Muscatine, which had crested at 22.31 feet on May 2 — its eighth highest on record.
- New Boston, which is near Wapello and had crested at 20.85 feet on May 3 — its 14th highest on record.
- Keithsburg, Ill., which is across the river from the Mississippi River Island State Wildlife Management Area and had crested at 19.12 feet on May 3 — its 13th highest on record.
- Gladstone, which is northeast from Burlington and crested at 15.93 feet on May 4 — its 13th highest on record.
- Burlington, which had crested at 20 feet on May 4 — its 15th highest on record.
These locations were still in their “action stage” — which is a water level where mitigation action is needed — as of the Thursday report:
- Dubuque at the Railroad Bridge, which had crested at 24.3 feet on April 29 — its third highest on record.
- Fulton, Ill., which is across the river from Clinton and had crested at 22.06 feet on April 30 — its fourth highest on record.
- Camanche, which had crested at 22.86 feet on April 30 — its fifth highest on record.
- Le Claire, which had crested at 16.18 feet on May 1 — its fifth highest on record.
- Illinois City, Ill., which is across the river from Fairport and had crested at 21.22 feet on May 2 — its eighth highest on record.
And, as of Thursday, these locations had left action stage altogether:
- Dubuque at Lock and Dam 11, which had crested at 23.03 feet on April 29 — its third highest on record.
- Bellevue, which had crested at 21.78 feet on April 29 — its third highest on record.
- Keokuk, which had crested at 17.71 feet on May 5.
By Monday, river communities from Dubuque to around Davenport should be clear of all flood action, the weather service forecasts. Additional rain could change the projections.
Brittney J. Miller is the Energy & Environment Reporter for The Gazette and a corps member with Report for America, a national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on under-covered issues.
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