Downtown Cape floodgates open as river continues to drop

For the first time in several weeks, downtown visitors had the opportunity to enjoy a pretty Sunday afternoon with unobstructed views of the Mississippi River at both Broadway and Themis Street.

Cape Girardeau city manager Scott Meyer said the floodgates at those streets reopened Friday as river levels fell.

"The river was up and down the last couple of weeks, and quick," Meyer said Sunday. "It came up pretty quickly, then it leveled off, then it started to fall, then it went down pretty quickly."

Barring any serious rise in water levels as a result of recent storms upstream, the river should fall below flood stage by Tuesday night, a meteorologist said Sunday.

"The bump we've been experiencing here lately looks to be leveling out," said Beverly Poole, a meteorologist for the National Weather Service at Paducah, Ky.

The falling Mississippi River is again drawing visitors to the Cape Girardeau riverfront at the Broadway floodgate Sunday. (Fred Lynch)

The city of Cape Girardeau begins closing floodgates when the water level reaches 4 feet above flood stage, with the Themis Street gate closing at 36 feet and the Broadway gate closing at 38 feet.

The river crested at 44.53 feet June 7. Floodwaters since have been receding gradually.

Early last week, highways around flood-prone Dutchtown reopened after being closed for about a week as a result of backwater flooding from the nearby Diversion Channel, and water levels have continued to decline steadily, with the river falling to 41.86 feet -- just below the 42-foot "major flood stage" designation -- on June 17.

Poole said the river was at 34.2 feet Sunday morning -- 2.2 feet above flood stage -- and had dropped more than 6 inches in a 24-hour period.

The river level is expected to be 33.3 feet today and 32.3 feet Tuesday before dropping to 31.4 feet -- about 7 inches below flood stage -- Wednesday, Poole said.

"The river is steadily falling. It's getting there. It's getting there," she said.

Poole cautioned that recent rain in Iowa and Wisconsin could cause river levels to rise.

"I worked the rivers today, and everything I saw is saying you should fall below flood stage by Tuesday evening," Poole said. "We'll just hope that anything upstream won't throw us back."

The seven-day forecast was calling for a 20 to 30 percent chance of thunderstorms in the heat of the afternoon every day, with the best chance for "organized" storms coming Wednesday through Friday as a cold front moves through the area, Poole said Sunday.

Otherwise, "it's just going to be hot, humid, looking for thunderstorms to develop in a very scattered nature," Poole said.

epriddy@semissourian.com

388-3642

Pertinent address:

Broadway and Water Street, Cape Girardeau, Mo.

Themis Street and Water Street, Cape Girardeau, Mo.