Historic Flooding Heads Down the Mississippi

[weatherbud]

INTERACTIVE MAP OF THE MISSISSIPPI

Iowa's rivers and land probably could have handled the massive rain — more than 15 inches in the last two weeks in some places — if it weren't for the heavy snow in the winter and lots of rain in the early spring, said Rob Middlemis-Brown, director of the U.S. Geological Survey Water Center in Iowa City. "The ground never dried out," he said.

The Cedar River, like other flooding rivers in Iowa, eventually dumps into the Mississippi. The National Weather Service issued moderate to major flood warnings Friday for much of the middle Mississippi River region.

For parts of Iowa and southern Wisconsin, this year's flooding is worse than the 1993 great Mississippi and Missouri river floods, said Ken Kunkel, interim director of the Illinois Water Survey. More rain is falling and in a shorter time now than in 1993. But for the entire Midwest, it was worse 15 years ago, he said.

That's because this year's flooding — while it has the same weather pattern as 1993 — is much more concentrated and localized in the Iowa, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Illinois, Indiana region, Kunkel said. The flood 15 years ago was over a wider geographic area and lasted longer. continue reading...


Pumps work overtime to keep water from the flooded
Mississippi River from seeping into a building Tuesday,
June 17, 2008, in Burlington, Iowa. Jeff Roberson / AP

[weatherbud]

Here's an update:

INTERACTIVE MAP OF FLOOD STAGE/RECORDS

MEYER, Ill. - Midwestern floodwaters breached a second levee along the Mississippi River in Adams County, Ill., on Wednesday, officials said. The water was threatening surrounding farmland, Julie Shepard of the Adams County Emergency Management Agency said. Earlier, floodwaters breached another levee in Illinois, after inundating much of Iowa for the past week.

The breach in Meyer, in western Illinois, forced the evacuation of the town of 40 to 50 people, Shepard said. Authorities patrolled the town Wednesday morning to make sure no one was left behind, she said. Officials monitored levees in other Mississippi River towns in Illinois and Missouri in hopes that they would hold.

Flooding that began in eastern Iowa caused more than $1.5 billion in damage as it crept south toward the Mississippi. About 25,000 people in Cedar Rapids were forced from their homes, 19 buildings at the University of Iowa were flooded and water treatment plants in several cities were knocked out. Now the floodwaters are a problem for communities such as Gulfport and Clarksville, Missouri. continue reading...

[weatherbud]

Here's an update:

INTERACTIVE MAP OF FLOOD STAGE/RECORDS

MEYER, Ill. - Midwestern floodwaters breached a second levee along the Mississippi River in Adams County, Ill., on Wednesday, officials said. The water was threatening surrounding farmland, Julie Shepard of the Adams County Emergency Management Agency said. Earlier, floodwaters breached another levee in Illinois, after inundating much of Iowa for the past week.

The breach in Meyer, in western Illinois, forced the evacuation of the town of 40 to 50 people, Shepard said. Authorities patrolled the town Wednesday morning to make sure no one was left behind, she said. Officials monitored levees in other Mississippi River towns in Illinois and Missouri in hopes that they would hold.

Flooding that began in eastern Iowa caused more than $1.5 billion in damage as it crept south toward the Mississippi. About 25,000 people in Cedar Rapids were forced from their homes, 19 buildings at the University of Iowa were flooded and water treatment plants in several cities were knocked out. Now the floodwaters are a problem for communities such as Gulfport and Clarksville, Missouri. continue reading...