Midwest/Iowa Flooding

My Uncle and his family live in Mason City, Ia and they had some water in their basement. Supposedly FEMA has been asking people to avoid pumping the water out of their basements if its under 6 inches because the ground outside the basements are so saturated that they could cave in...that was the word a couple days ago anyway.

Anyway, hopefully this forecasted crest is wrong or else it looks like the Winnebago river in Mason City will reach very near to its record level it set a few days ago. :eek:

http://www.crh.noaa.gov/ahps2/hydrograph.php?wfo=dmx&gage=mcwi4&view=1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1
 
I took a drive down to Lake Red Rock and most of it is closed due to flooding. The lake is almost to the bottom of the mile long bridge and the dam is letting alot of water run through because the lake is so high. Alot of the campgrounds/parks below the dam are now under water. I saw a news crew up on the dam so mabey they will show how bad it is on tv. The waters are not expected to crest untill Monday I heard with a chance of rain Sunday. We need to dry out. How does next week look for rain chances?
 
I've been following the blog of a friend whose boyfriend owns a house right up against one of the levees in Waterloo. The water in his (finished) basement "crested" at about four feet yesterday. Apparently it's the third flood he's had in 11 years.
 
JWallentine said:
My Uncle and his family live in Mason City, Ia and they had some water in their basement. Supposedly FEMA has been asking people to avoid pumping the water out of their basements if its under 6 inches because the ground outside the basements are so saturated that they could cave in...that was the word a couple days ago anyway.

Anyway, hopefully this forecasted crest is wrong or else it looks like the Winnebago river in Mason City will reach very near to its record level it set a few days ago. :eek:

http://www.crh.noaa.gov/ahps2/hydrograph.php?wfo=dmx&gage=mcwi4&view=1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1
Click to expand...

Yes, your right. There have been several instances so far where we have had basement walls just simply collapse. Also, I did see where you saw the original river crest forecast last night. At first with the forecasted rainfall it stated it would crest again at 18.8 which would slightly break the record just set. This forecast was a bit overdone though and you can now see that we should only crest again in the 12 and 13 ft range, while this is still extremely high for our area this will be nothing in comparison to the other day.
 
My Aunt said the water is very close to thier housing community called Park Hills between Otley and Pella on the back side of Roberts Creek which is part of Red Rock So I am going to help them start sandbaging.

Ps. The Birdland levee in Des Moines is not looking good. The water is expected to be over the levee tonight and people are being evacuated in the area.
 
Part of the town of La Grange Missouri was evacuated today. They were told to plan on being out of their houses for a couple of weeks at least. This is along the Mississippi River. The road has also been closed again at Alexandria, Highway 61 in NE Missouri. That's the road just across the Des Moines River from Keokuk. We're supposed to have heavy rain around here tonight and we're already looking for crests within feet of the '93 levels.
 
I grew up in Cedar Rapids, Iowa and am amazed it's not getting national coverage right now. The Cedar River's old record there was 20 feet, and it's up to 25-28 feet and still rising. The water is over bridges in downtown. Here's a picture from today vs. normal:

From Cedar Rapids Gazette early today:
CRnew.jpg


From google search of same building/island.
CRold.jpg
 
Guys this is getting scary. Heavy rains fell last night and through much of today already. Looking at the radar and short term model forecasts is very troubling. Storms continue to traverse eastern Iowa dumping more water into the saturated soils. It looks as if heavy rains could continue in these same areas all through the night tonight, and into early tomorrow morning. Hopefully we can it shove eastward a bit alleviating some of the runoff.

The 12z high-res WRF is terrifying to say the least.
http://www.nco.ncep.noaa.gov/pmb/nwprod/analysis/namer/hiresw/12/images/hiresw_p48_048l.gif

Edit:Iowa City upped their already record level crest forecast by FIVE feet alone today.
 
It appears the flooding could get way worse. SPC thinks up to 3" per hour with the storms moving through tonight. http://www.spc.noaa.gov/products/md/md1343.html We have some family friends in Cedar Falls. Luckily they all live on higher ground than the surrounding area. I hope a dry spell is in the forecast because watching all this destruction is not fun. Luckily we haven't heard of many deaths associated with the flooding.
 
I'm originally from Iowa too, and I've been watching this whole situation with awe... NWS upped their forecast crest for the Cedar River in Cedar Rapids to 32 feet tomorrow morning - 12 feet above the old record. For comparison, during the Flood of '93 the Cedar crested at 19.3 feet. A railroad bridge also collapsed near downtown, driving the water levels even higher. Truly horrendous situation.
 
This is really terrible stuff. Been sandbagging for a good part of the day during intermittent rain... called off at times for lightning. Take a break and go home to get a bite to eat and we've got some nasty supercells to our SE with more rain on the way for our area. We truly cannot get a break.

Been trying to save the Memorial Union building area in Iowa city, a big student hub and and an area the university just spent a lot of money in upgrading. We've got sandbag walls up to 8 feet already in areas and I don't know if it's going to be enough.

I'm sick of severe weather and rain... give us a damned break.
 
Lake Red Rock is almost as high as it was in 93 and will probibly beat it's record since the Saloreville Dam is letting out alot of water which is heading strait for Red Rock. The Saloreville Dam has so much water going through they can not turn it off now.

The Red Rock Dam has 2 gates open and if they open all 4 gates Ottumwa (SE Iowa) is going to be screwed. I heard they were evacuating Ottumwa right now. Also part of Interstate I-80 is now closed.

I was sandbagging all evening to help save houses in the Park Hills community on the backside of Roberts Creeck which is part of RedRock. (Iowa's Largest Lake) Several houses there are close to the water. My Aunts house is 10-12 feet from the water. I will pray and hope the sand wall holds together.

Please pray for everyone affected by the floods. Thankyou.
 
Josh Richardson said:
What part of I-80 is closed? DOT page doesnt show any closures on I-80, not saying your not correct or anything....I was just curious where its closed and where you found the info I guess....
Click to expand...

My ex-GF told me they had closure earlier in Des Moines, between the Ankeny exit and the Saylorville exit, but traffic might have been just backed up there.
 
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