Flood stage is 12 feet. But with scattered showers forecast for later in the week, there was no way to predict how long it would take for the water to go down. A 403-mile stretch of the Mississippi from Muscatinem, Iowa, to Minneapolis, Minn., was closed to boat and barge traffic Tuesday. Both Amtrak and Burlington Northern Santa Fe shut down rail service between Chicago and Minneapolis-St. Paul because of flood water on the tracks.
Some trains face delays of two days.
Tom and Peggy Ann Knight have already endured three floods dating back to 1963. Their mobile home now rests on a mound where the Wapsipinicon River meets the bloated Mississippi, near Princeton, Iowa, but Mother Nature hasn't chased the Knights away in 38 years. At St. Paul, Minn., the Mississippi rose Tuesday above 23 feet for the first time since the 1960s. Four city parks and the downtown airport for small planes were under water. One man was missing after he and a companion drove past barricades onto a flooded highway near Minneapolis earlier this week.