Cedar River forecast raised again, now at 17.3 feet on Tuesday

The Cedar River at Cedar Rapids is expected to reach major flood stage on Monday and continue to rise until it crests on Tuesday afternoon at 17.3 feet.

This crest is a reforecast from yesterday's projection of a 16.5 foot crest.

You can continue to monitor levels in real time by visiting this site.

City officials are well versed in mobilizing protections at this point. Following the previous flooding scare in early September the city mobilized protections for a flood reaching 18 feet.

Yesterday, city officials said they were going to watch the river forecast closely and make protection decisions today.

'We are going to wait to make the call on the level of protection we will enact until we see where the crest predictions land tomorrow,” Maria Johnson, communications division manager for the city of Cedar Rapids said Thursday. 'We can quickly build to the appropriate level of protection if needed, but we would like to make the determination based on updated river projections tomorrow.”

According to a media release Friday, the city has protection measures already in place for flood waters up to 16 feet, which includes installing plugs in the underground storm sewer system and stationing pumps to be used as needed. Underground plugs prevent water from backing up into the storm sewer system and flooding roadways, according to the release.

City staff are also staging equipment and will evaluate protection levels this weekend based on updated crest projections, according to the release. The release states that city employees can quickly build protection up to 18 feet as needed, which includes some above-ground measures such as installing HESCO barriers in low-lying areas.