Downtown Burlington floods as another barrier fails in eastern Iowa; Mississippi River expected to drop

Another floodwall has failed in Iowa, inundating a county seat in the eastern part of the state.

Des Moines County Sheriff's Office confirmed that a HESCO flood-prevention barrier in downtown Burlington failed Saturday afternoon. Water seeped onto Front Street, and city officials were working to dry the area near Burlington's port and auditorium.

HESCO barriers are giant boxes made of sturdy metal netting covered by a tough fabric, often filled with sand or gravel, that act as temporary flood walls.

In a Saturday news release, officials with the city of Burlington said the barriers had failed at about 1:30 p.m. on the south section of the wall. The city urged residents to avoid the floodwaters, saying sewage could begin to enter the water because the water had inundated a sanitary lift station on Market Street.

Crews closed Front Street along Washington Street, Jefferson Street and Valley Street at Main Street.

The Mississippi River at Burlington should drop to 24 feet by Monday, said Terry Simmons, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in the Quad Cities. It should continue to recede further, she said.

“Once it starts falling, all that water will recede," she said.

According to the weather service's river forecast, the Mississippi should drop but will remain in "major" flood stage until at least next Sunday, June 9.

Parking lots and a handful of buildings were underwater early Saturday evening. The damage appeared less widespread than recent flooding in downtown Davenport, where similar barriers broke earlier this spring.

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Nearby Burlington businesses remained open Saturday. A few onlookers rode bikes through the shallow water, couples dined at a restaurant around the corner and an Amtrak train rolled by, passengers opening windows to see the water below.

Work was underway to minimize damage and keep properties dry; crews pumped water out of a bank and other buildings, while others appeared to pump water out of basements.

The area has been "exceedingly wet" over the past few days — and months — pushing to the Mississippi River near the city past flood stage for the past 79 days and counting, Brian Pierce, another National Weather Service meteorologist in the Quad Cities, said Saturday.

"We went into a wet pattern in late March and it continued all through April and May," he said.

Pierce said of the 10.3 inches of May rainfall in Burlington, nearly half — or 4.93 inches — fell between May 26 and May 29.

Rain is expected to stay away until Monday. Simmons said the city should see chances of rain each day of the workweek before sunny skies return next weekend. 

Whether the expected rain prolongs flood risks depends on which river basins it falls in and the amount of rain, she said.