River to be nearly half its current stage by Wednesday

The Mississippi River at Cape Girardeau will drop sharply this weekend and into next week -- falling nearly four feet by Thursday.

According to the river-level observations and a forecast from the U.S. Geological Survey, the river stage stood at 8.2 feet Friday afternoon. It is expected to decline steadily to 4.5 feet by Thursday.

After a brief rise this month, the Mississippi is dropping again.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has said it can maintain a navigation channel of 9 feet down to a level of minus-7 feet on the St. Louis gauge.

The drop being forecast at St. Louis, where the river was expected to stay above minus-7 feet at least through late February, as of Friday was much less severe than at Cape Girardeau.

The water dropped 1.6 feet at St. Louis from Monday through Friday.