Coralville Lake

Well, by all predictions today is the day the Res. goes over the spillway for only the 2nd time in 50 yrs. Should happen sometime before noon today. The level is at 711.56, less than 1/2 ft. from the top. Here is a link for anyone interested.Coralville Lake They closed the road over the top of the dam yesterday.
Most people do not know or realize that the dam that seperates Lake macbride and the main dam are at the same height. So when the water starts to go over the spillway it will also start to back up into Lake Macbride. This will cause LM levels to rise significantly also. Last time (1993) the water was over the top of the causeway on Mehaffey Bridge Rd closing the road between North Liberty and Solon. Hopefully the water won't backflow as much this time but only time will tell. They also had to close the 965 bridge where it crosses the Res. and may have to close down the 380 bridges. So if you are making any plans to go to Cedar Rapids I would check the KCRG TV web site for the latest road closings. In 1993 the water topped the spillway on July 24th. I just hope we can get out of this $^&%*^( pattern of rain every other day. Not just here but across the state. I would have to think Columbus Junction down stream will have serious problems as that is where the Iowa and Cedar rivers come together. Then flow into pool 18. Not looking good for you down there, Randy. Both rivers are looking at historical high flood stages.
I'm sure its not much better in any other part of the state. A spring for the record books! :bang_head:

As of right now, the Iowa river is forecasted to crest 1.4ft higher than it did in 1993.
That year the only way you could get into the town of Conesville was to take I-80 west to the West Libery exit and on south.
Hwy 92 bridge was closed, F-70 bridge and Hwy 22.

I cant believe they havent upped the crest yet, we got hammered again last night!!

That sucks about MacBride, that was my latest fishing spot and now it may be flooded too! Guess I'll have to find another place if it gets too high.

Columbus Junction should be alright for the most part, most of the houses are up on the hill. But all those roads closing is gonna hurt some people for driving with the gas prices the way they are.

Well the Mississippi's new crest is 20.4, I wonder if the boat shop will be sandbagging again? That will be real close to the building and any more rain will put it inside.

Yeah Branden, I would guess they will be. I have a feeling that a major sandbaggin effort is gonna go on down here too. Our crest is lookin like it will be over 22'. Was 25' in 93 but none the less I am starting to see with each passing day the possability of them not being able to pull off a tournament on this pool. I don't think that much will stop them from putting it on with all the $$$ invloved but if you can't launch a boat. How can you have a tournament? This could get real interesting.

Yeah it's gonna get crazy real quick, I wonder how long they have to make the decision? Have to be shortly I would think.

Chopper wrote:

Yeah it's gonna get crazy real quick, I wonder how long they have to make the decision? Have to be shortly I would think.

I am actively trying to get in touch with some people that I know that would have real good info on this. I will keep you posted. ;)

Hey Dave,

In some of those pics it looks like water is starting to come threw the concrete and run down the spillway at Coralville. Do you know if that is indeed what is happening or is it just the way the pics look?

Seems crazy that all those people are up playing on the spillway and such. I assume they have stopped all of that now since it should be getting very very close accoarding to the stages.

Ya, last I heard, no one was to be near the spillway!
Not hearing much on the skunk but I can tell you, my little farm is suffering pretty bad right now!. I also went across the north and south forks today and water is everywhere.

Chopper wrote:

Columbus Junction should be alright for the most part, most of the houses are up on the hill. But all those roads closing is gonna hurt some people for driving with the gas prices the way they are.

They shut down 92 this morning to start sandbaggin. Casey's, Dollar General and the EconoMart are all jumping ship. There is a massive sandbagging effort going on right now.
They upped the forecasted crest to 32.5 feet. It crested at 28.3 on 7/7/93.

The Cedar is forecasted to crest at 19ft. It crested at 17.11 on 4/6/93.

It is going to be bad for a lot of folks along both of those waterways.

NOT GOOD! :evil: :bang_head:

rellison8 wrote:

Hey Dave,

In some of those pics it looks like water is starting to come threw the concrete and run down the spillway at Coralville. Do you know if that is indeed what is happening or is it just the way the pics look?

Seems crazy that all those people are up playing on the spillway and such. I assume they have stopped all of that now since it should be getting very very close accoarding to the stages.

Beleive it or not that water is from BOAT traffic. It is from the wave action as the dummies drive close to the dam and spillway. IDIOTS!!! They have closed the road that goes over the dam.

The water started to trickle over the spillway way about 8:30 last night. Should really get going sometime this AM. They are predicting another 1-2" of rain for later today and into tomorrow. Just what we need. They have evacuated a large part of Cedar Falls as you could see by Bird's pics they have plenty of water. Took out a railroad bridge yesterday there was 20 people on it but all got off OK.
Cedar rapids is starting to evacuate several blocks of the Chech Village area over night. Record high flood levels for both the Iowa and the Cedar and it is all comming your way. On TV they said they closed the River from Muscatine on down for possibly 2 weeks. Doesn't look good for the Rumble. There has got to be one hell of a current comming down river. I don't know where exactly they were showing parts of the river but the barges looked like they were going 50mph with the current and barely move against it.

Have you checked out 19 lately?

New pictures from the Press-Citizen of the water starting to go over the spillway Press-Citizen Pics

I'm checking a couple sources now Dave I will be posting some info very soon.

Word round the campfire is that they are gonna give it one last go and see if they can wait it out. I got this info from a friend.

The crest they are currently predicting is 22.4 (second highest only to 93).

At this point with all the mass dumping of water from all of these areas they are hoping to get things back on the fall by June 17th. That gives them 9 days of falling water to HOPEFULLY (and I do mean hopefully is what the guy said) It will be back at the level that obviously is not going to be perfect for fishing but will be safe for boats and all docks will be back usable.

Obviously mother nature is really the only one that truely has the answer now. If the crest gets pushed back more than a couple days at this point IMO its all over. From what this guy told me, and he really isn't much but is watching it close threw the chamber cause he is supposed to be fishing in it. Things are extremely touch and go at the moment as you all can imagine. You can't put 10,000 people (many of which are likely not normally river aware type people) in an extremely dangerous situation including compeditors and officals and on and on. HOWEVER Ft Madison I would guess would be in line to loose millions of dollars in revenue and monies spent getting ready for this deal if it falls threw so man I would not wanna be the guy pullin the plug on that deal. :shock:

rellison8 wrote:

Word round the campfire is that they are gonna give it one last go and see if they can wait it out. I got this info from a friend.

The crest they are currently predicting is 22.4 (second highest only to 93).

At this point with all the mass dumping of water from all of these areas they are hoping to get things back on the fall by June 17th. That gives them 9 days of falling water to HOPEFULLY (and I do mean hopefully is what the guy said) It will be back at the level that obviously is not going to be perfect for fishing but will be safe for boats and all docks will be back usable.

Obviously mother nature is really the only one that truely has the answer now. If the crest gets pushed back more than a couple days at this point IMO its all over. From what this guy told me, and he really isn't much but is watching it close threw the chamber cause he is supposed to be fishing in it. Things are extremely touch and go at the moment as you all can imagine. You can't put 10,000 people (many of which are likely not normally river aware type people) in an extremely dangerous situation including compeditors and officals and on and on. HOWEVER Ft Madison I would guess would be in line to loose millions of dollars in revenue and monies spent getting ready for this deal if it falls threw so man I would not wanna be the guy pullin the plug on that deal. :shock:

I am sure the city will lose money, which is to bad. But if you can't launch boats safely or even be on the river without some sense of safety it is not worth it. As we were always taught "Safety first". The Res isn't even suppose to crest before next Mon. or Tues. All that water will still have to come that way. The Cedar's water probably won't get there until next week either. I just don't see the River dropping that fast. But what do I know :?: We will just have to wait and see. We need a draught for a few weeks!

Basshawk wrote:

I am sure the city will lose money, which is to bad. But if you can't launch boats safely or even be on the river without some sense of safety it is not worth it. As we were always taught "Safety first". The Res isn't even suppose to crest before next Mon. or Tues. All that water will still have to come that way. The Cedar's water probably won't get there until next week either. I just don't see the River dropping that fast. But what do I know :?: We will just have to wait and see. We need a draught for a few weeks!

I agree Dave. Hence my reason for the wishful thinking on my part. I am not sure why they think the river will be dropping by the 17th either cause that seems real quick when you consider half the damn state is covered in water. I can't see any way that they will be able to regulate things in the timeframe they are thinking either but I guess all we can do at this point is wait and watch and wait some more until the days go past and are dry or rainy. None of us knows what is truely in store.


I have been looking at the Steamboat Days Celebration going on on the Burlington Riverfront now too. Some how they are going to try and stay and wait it out. They moved some of the midway back a bit from the edge of the river and are going to try sandbagging the entire area of the festival and concerts to see if they can hold it back. To me that is a MAJOR MAJOR risk. Millions of dollars worth of sound equipment, and midway rides and big name bands and 10,000+ people down in an area that should be under water with extremely fast current right next door. Lets say the sandbags give way. The entire area is fence for crowd control and ticket sales. 10,000 people trapped at a Gretchin Wilson concert that get washed into the river does not sound like a good situation to me but they are gonna try it anyways.

There is not another ELITE series tournament scheduled until 7/31. I think they better call it now and push it back a week or 2.

rellison8 wrote:

Basshawk wrote:

I am sure the city will lose money, which is to bad. But if you can't launch boats safely or even be on the river without some sense of safety it is not worth it. As we were always taught "Safety first". The Res isn't even suppose to crest before next Mon. or Tues. All that water will still have to come that way. The Cedar's water probably won't get there until next week either. I just don't see the River dropping that fast. But what do I know :?: We will just have to wait and see. We need a draught for a few weeks!

I agree Dave. Hence my reason for the wishful thinking on my part. I am not sure why they think the river will be dropping by the 17th either cause that seems real quick when you consider half the damn state is covered in water. I can't see any way that they will be able to regulate things in the timeframe they are thinking either but I guess all we can do at this point is wait and watch and wait some more until the days go past and are dry or rainy. None of us knows what is truely in store.


I have been looking at the Steamboat Days Celebration going on on the Burlington Riverfront now too. Some how they are going to try and stay and wait it out. They moved some of the midway back a bit from the edge of the river and are going to try sandbagging the entire area of the festival and concerts to see if they can hold it back. To me that is a MAJOR MAJOR risk. Millions of dollars worth of sound equipment, and midway rides and big name bands and 10,000+ people down in an area that should be under water with extremely fast current right next door. Lets say the sandbags give way. The entire area is fence for crowd control and ticket sales. 10,000 people trapped at a Gretchin Wilson concert that get washed into the river does not sound like a good situation to me but they are gonna try it anyways.

Don't forget to mix a little alcohol with those 10,000 people. :drunken: That always makes for some real good decisions. Doesn't sound like a good combination to me either. I think NL is having their "Fun Days" this weekend. Nothing on the scale of Burlington but at least there isn't a river near where the city puts on the event. But plenty of drunks though! :drunken:

bustinbeaks wrote:

There is not another ELITE series tournament scheduled until 7/31. I think they better call it now and push it back a week or 2.

That sounds like the smart move! We will just see if they are! Smart that is.

bustinbeaks wrote:

There is not another ELITE series tournament scheduled until 7/31. I think they better call it now and push it back a week or 2.

I like that plan myself. However they better hurry up and do it. My vacation time is gonna be quite tough to get changed at this point with everyone else already having there time scheduled. I really don't wanna have a week off to sit around and pull my pork and then not have the time off when they do have the event.

WHAT A FRIKKIN MESS is really all I can say.

Yep drunks too Dave! The other funny thing that they was talking about is that the festival itself has NO flood insurance so if they would loose the sandbags and such and the place would flood. Most everything would be a total loss. Real smart I would say.

rellison8 wrote:

bustinbeaks wrote:

There is not another ELITE series tournament scheduled until 7/31. I think they better call it now and push it back a week or 2.

I like that plan myself. However they better hurry up and do it. My vacation time is gonna be quite tough to get changed at this point with everyone else already having there time scheduled. I really don't wanna have a week off to sit around and pull my pork and then not have the time off when they do have the event.

WHAT A FRIKKIN MESS is really all I can say.

Yep drunks too Dave! The other funny thing that they was talking about is that the festival itself has NO flood insurance so if they would loose the sandbags and such and the place would flood. Most everything would be a total loss. Real smart I would say.

Sounds to me like they just want to make a buck and hang the safety! As you said real smart! :beat:

Well boys. New river info came out today.

Crest is now higher and going hold at that height longer than they had first predicted.

rellison8 wrote:

Well boys. New river info came out today.

Crest is now higher and going hold at that height longer than they had first predicted.

I figured as much they keep raising the crest levels and time 2 to 3 times a day for both the Iowa and the cedar.

I would hate to be the guy who has to make that call.

Far as Steamboat Days goes. They are gonna give it a go yet tonight and try to get that concert in but then it sounds like that is going to be it.

If the SBD Committee don't pull the plug on it then the City is considering doing it for them.

So I would guess that Friday,Saturday and Sundays concerts are all off as well. There will be a mass tear down of the midway and all the booths after tonights events. They are finally starting to understand what I have thought. You ain't gonna be able to be safe with 15,000 people protected from a 4' wall of water by sandbags.