High water results in low boat traffic for Fourth of July weekend

One of the wettest months of June ever recorded in Iowa is still impacting area rivers in July, as the main channel of the Mississippi River at Lansing received very little boat traffic on what normally would be a very busy river weekend during the recent Fourth of July holiday. The photo above taken Friday, July 4 gives some indication of how high the river levels have risen, as the sandbars located due east of the City of Lansing Marina (shown in the photo foreground) and typically very populated during the Fourth of July were nowhere to be found during this past holiday weekend. Although no flooding of the Mississippi River has been reported at Lansing, the National Weather Service reports that the river did reach a crest of nearly 16.5' on the Fourth of July, about six inches shy of the river's minor flooding stage at Lansing. The high water prompted the Iowa Department of Natural Resources to issue an advisory June 30 to avoid boating on the Mississippi River the entire length of Iowa's eastern border.