Tri States Region – It appears the Mississippi River has hit its high water mark in this region. However, the river is still well outside of its banks.
National Weather Service forecasters expected the Mississippi to crest Sunday in Canton.
In this region, the Mississippi never quite reached the records set during the Great Flood of 1993, but it came close. The river still caused a great deal of damage. It broke more than 20 levees. One levee break caused floodwaters to swamp the Village of Gulfport and led to the closure of the Highway 34 bridge between Gulfport and Burlington. Thousands of acres of farmland also ended up under water.
The bridge between Hamilton and Keokuk remained open, but was reduced to just one lane in each direction. IDOT crews elevated those lanes in the approach to the bridge in Hamilton to keep them just barely above flood waters. In the other lanes, the water was so high that you could barely see the tops of guardrails.
The NWS says the river is expected to fall to 18.3 feet at Gladstone on Monday. Flood stage is 10 feet.
At Burlington, the NWS predicts the river will fall to 22.9 feet Monday. Flood stage is 15 feet.
The river is expected to fall to 24.8 feet Monday at Keokuk, where flood stage is 16 feet.