Midwest Flooding Continues Unabated; Mississippi River Hits Record Crest

The baseball diamond in Davenport, Iowa is still above water but
large parts of the downtown in that city is submerged by
the Mississippi River. Widespread flooding has been going
on in the Midwest an South since March, and is expected to continue
through this month at least 

Back in mid-March, when serious flooding began in the middle of the nation, lots of forecasters feared the flooding would last a long time. Possibly into the summer.

So far, those fears are coming true, with continued record flooding in spots, along with torrents of rain.  

The latest spot to get hit really hard is Davenport, Iowa, where the Mississippi River reached a record high crest - even higher than the historic 1993 flood that many people thought would never be exceeded.

A temporary levee erected to fend off the flooding failed, so a large chunk of downtown Davenport quickly flooded on Friday. The water is still there. The Mississippi River near Davenport has been above flood stage since March 15 - nearly two months.

Major looding along the Mississippi is likely to continue for a long time to come all the way down to Louisiana, where major flooding is forecast.

The weather forecast is really discouraging. Heavy rain is likely to continue this week in the middle of the nation from Iowa south to Texas and Louisiana. Most of Iowa can expect two to five inches of rain over the next week. In parts of eastern Texas and Louisiana, more than seven inches of rain will come down between now and next Sunday.

The rain isn't expected to be as heavy north of Iowa, but rivers that eventually feed into the Mississippi, like the Big Sioux and James in South Dakota, remain above flood stage.

Lots of other rivers will flood under this wet scenario, too. I'm sure ongoing flooding along parts of the Missouri River could get worse as the rains keep going.

The ongoing scenario in the Midwest is remarkably similar to The Great Flood of 1993. In both 1992 and 2018, heavy autumn and early winter precipitation saturated the soils. In both cases, relentless rains continued. In 1993, the downpours kept raking the area through at least July, causing extreme flooding, wrecking many towns and cities, including Davenport and Des Moines, Iowa.

It remains to be seen if the pattern of heavy rain will continue through the summer in the Midwest. For now, the wet pattern shows no signs of giving up.

The 1993 flood caused about $15 billion in damage (about $28 million in 2019 dollars).

This year, there has already been several billion dollars in flood damage since March in the nation's middle. That financial toll will continue to rise along with the river levels.

Next up: A video that shows how sudden and scary the flooding was in Davenport, Iowa when the temporary levee burst.  It shows employees in a restaurant called Roam fleeing in a nick of time as the water raced into the city. I'm glad the restaurant was closed at the time. Imagine the chaos if patrons also had to flee.

Here's the video: