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Flooding is expected in eastern Iowa along the Mississippi River in the coming days.
“We’re starting to see the waters rise….We expect most of the sites to be in major flood by Saturday of this coming week,” says Alexander Gibbs, the lead meteorologist at the National Weather Service office in the Quad Cities.
The river has reached major flood stage in Dubuque. By Tuesday, the National Weather Service forecasts major flooding from Dubuque to just north of Burlington, with moderate flooding in Fort Madison.
In northwest Iowa, the Weather Service predicts flood levels in places like McGregor may reach above the crest during major flooding in 2019. Gibbs says most of the water heading down the Mississippi is melted snow.
“There’s some precip, some rain that fell up in north in Wisconsin and Minnesota that’s adding to it,” Gibbs says. “But the current forecast basically includes what’s fallen already.” Gibbs says there’s no much rain in this week’s forecast. The Iowa Department of Homeland Security and Emergency Management is coordinating with emergency managers in counties along the Mississippi river coridor to check on their supplies of water pumps and sandbags and to offer technical assistance. The agency’s director is recommending that Iowans who live along the Mississippi River prepare for possible flooding and have an evacuation plan ready.