Cities along the Mississippi River are closing their flood gates and preparing for water to continue to rise after four days of torrential downpours soaked basin states with up to 15 inches of rain in some areas.
The river is now forecast to crest in Cairo, Illinois at up to 54 feet on April 10 — just over major flood stage — according to the National Weather Service. The river could stay above 50 feet for about two weeks, Lower Mississippi River Forecast Center senior hydrologist David Welch said Monday.
The rain has stopped for now, but the basin is not yet out of danger. In Northwest Tennessee, Dyer County issued a mandatory evacuation order Monday for Bogota and surrounding communities due to the “imminent threat of flooding.” More than 100 residents of West Memphis, Arkansas, had been rescued from their homes as of Sunday.
Officials in Memphis and Cape Girardeau, Missouri, are closely monitoring the rising water after already suffering damage from several days of flash floods. Arkansas, Kentucky and Tennessee have active federal disaster declarations after tornadoes, high winds, and heavy rain in early April, according to FEMA. Kentucky and Missouri also have disaster declarations for previous storms over the past few months.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is in flood fight mode, which allows them to provide equipment and assistance to local authorities, said Drew Smith of the Corps’ Mississippi Valley Division. Multiple tributaries of the Mississippi River in the Memphis District saw “unprecedented rainfall,” including the St. Francis/Little River basin and the Obion, Forked Deer and Loosahatchie rivers, Smith said.
“After three years of drought along the mighty Mississippi, and no substantial high water along our river since April of 2023, what we’ve seen in the last week or so has been torrential rain impacts of much of the lower main stem,” Blytheville, Arkansas, Mayor Melisa Logan said during a Monday news conference hosted by the Mississippi River Cities and Towns Initiative.
Logan is the Arkansas state chair of the nonprofit organization, which represents local leaders in flood-prone cities and towns along the river, and has been lobbying in Washington, D.C. for more funding for flood control projects.
MRCTI executive director Colin Wellenkamp said the organization has multiple flood mitigation projects that have created 100,000 new acres of natural flood storage underway from La Crosse, Wisconsin down to Louisiana. Some of those projects helped absorb floodwaters — and risk — during this event, he said.
Cities in Missouri, Tennessee report significant damage
Northwest Arkansas received rainfall in the double digits between April 2 and April 5, Logan said. Her region saw some flooding, but fared better than other cities along the river.
Memphis Mayor Paul Young said the city received 12 inches of rain, causing flooding, downed trees and power outages.
“Thankfully, our teams worked really hard, and they were very responsive and very prepared for the storms that took place,” he said. “When you have that level of rainfall, it’s hard for our systems to be able to drain the water at a speed that is necessary.”
Cape Girardeau, Missouri, and several small towns in Cape County suffered significant damage from flooding and at least one tornado, Mayor Stacy Kinder said.
The Big Muddy River, a tributary of the Mississippi River running through Southern Illinois, is seeing its highest flood levels in years. Cape Girardeau has opened up green space over the last several years to create natural flood storage areas to the north of the city, Kinder said.
While those projects have helped retain some of the floodwater, Cape Girardeau’s water treatment system can’t keep up. The system typically treats around 26 million gallons over the span of a few days. Between April 2 and April 6, it treated 91 million gallons, Kinder said.
The excessive volume caused a 24-inch sewer main to break near the river’s edge, and repairs are on hold until the sewer system can begin to drain.
“We have managed to mitigate leakage as long as our lift station remains operational, so prayers and cross fingers on that,” Kinder said. “We’re hoping that the impacts are not too tremendous there, but it’s a big deal.”
The city has closed its Mississippi River floodgates in anticipation of a 37-foot flood stage, and city pump stations will be continuously manned to continue moving water out of downtown, she said.
Mitigation measures softened the blow for some towns
Mayor Nick White of New Madrid, Missouri, said his community saw over a foot of rain in some areas, and flooding caused some power outages and sewer issues. The city used its gravity drains – pipes or drains that use gravity to direct water down slopes and away from structures – early in the flood event and filled 50,000 sandbags out over five days, White said. Minimal homes were flooded.
“It could have been a lot worse and I’m thankful for the outcome that we’ve had thus far,” White said.
The river is expected to reach 41.5 feet at its peak; flood stage for New Madrid is 34 feet.
In Osceola, Arkansas, Mayor Joe Harris Jr. reported “minimal damage.” The city had been working on storm drain improvements for the past three months, “and we just happened to get ahead of the curve,” he said.
Tiptonville, Tennessee closed its flood gates Monday morning, Mayor Cliff Berry said. The town has experienced minimal damage so far, but nearby Obion County was not so lucky. Rives, a small town that suffered significant flooding in February, is once again filled with water, he said.
Horseshoe Lake in East St. Louis, Illinois, took on about 500 Olympic swimming pools worth of water, protecting five cities in the area, Wellenkamp said. At the confluence of the Illinois and Mississippi Rivers, a flood storage project that is not yet complete still took on some water, diverting it from Grafton, Illinois and Alton, Missouri.
Flood reduction structures along the Big Muddy River are helping slow and store flood water that would otherwise run through Cape Girardeau, Wellenkamp said. A new forest being built in West Memphis should take pressure off of roadways and North Memphis flooding, he said.
“All of this adds capacity and it reduces overall risk, and it creates a situation that would be less impactful than otherwise,” Wellenkamp said. “We’re happy to report that these projects, even though some of them are in progress, are working and doing what they’re designed to do.”
This story is a product of the Mississippi River Basin Ag & Water Desk, an independent reporting network based at the University of Missouri in partnership with Report for America, with major funding from the Walton Family Foundation.