UPDATE (April 25, 2023):
The National Weather Service now predicts the Mississippi River at Burlington will crest at between 20 and 21 feet on May 5 or 6.
That’s down from previous estimates of up to 22 feet.
Flood stage is 15 feet.
Gina Hardin, coordinator of the Des Moines County Emergency Management Agency, said this is a unique flooding situation, because there hasn’t been a lot of spring rain locally.
“Normally we have the rain throughout Iowa so our tributaries are normally higher than they are right now. And that is unusual for us. I’m not sure that people realize that, yes, we are starting to flood. The river is coming out of its banks,” Hardin said.
Usually it’s a combination of snowmelt from more northern points along the river and local rainfall that causes flooding in southeast Iowa, Hardin said.
The two areas of concern in Des Moines are the port of Burlington, which is protected by a floodwall, and a levee that runs from north of Burlington to Louisa County.
Hardin said the Two Rivers Levee and Drainage District is closely monitoring the levee situation.
***
April 24, 2023:
As the northernmost parts of the Mississippi swell with spring rainfall and snowmelt, the flooding forecast is coming into view downriver.
The flood stage at Burlington is 15 feet. The river has been above that since the middle of last week.
Early Monday morning, it was at 16.5 feet and is expected to reach 19.6 feet by Sunday evening.
That’s about the level that flood waters begin to affect the Port of Burlington downtown.
“We’re always concerned. We always keep an eye on the river,” said Mayor Jon Billups. “With our floodwall, it’s not nearly a panic situation.”
Billups said the city is pretty good up to 18 feet, with the floodwall, pumps, and HESCO barriers, which are the canvas and wire bags filled with sand.
The river will crest higher than it has since 2019, when there was significant flooding in downtown Burlington.
In 2019, it went over 20 feet five times. The city had HESCO barriers up for around 120 days, and one of those barriers failed.
But Billups said since then the city has finished the downtown portion of the floodwall.
Burlington can endure 19 feet or so, even if it’s starting to get uncomfortable.
“With the floodwall, we’ll have some seepage. But we should be able to pump that out,” Billups said. “We should be able to keep the water out of our sewer lift station, and as long as we can do that, we can keep it out of businesses’ basements downtown and keep the city rolling.”
However, current predictions are for the river at Burlington to reach 21 or 22 feet.
That doesn’t include any potential local rainfall that could increase or prolong impacts.
Billups said when the river gets that high, there are concerns about the levees.
“We sure hope it doesn’t come to that,” Billups said.
Billups said he hopes Old Man River will settle down a bit – and that Mother Nature helps out a little bit too.
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