116 3rd St SE
Cedar Rapids, Iowa 52401
Coralville Lake levels falling; outflow rising
The Army Corps of Engineers increased the outflow of water from the Coralville Lake to 10,000 cubic feet per second this morning after models predicted the lake was expected to crest at 710 feet – just two feet below the emergency spillway.
”When you start realizing there's not much storage you start crossing your fingers and hoping the rain passes you by,” said John Castle, operations manager with U.S. Army Corps of Engineers at Coralville Lake.
Despite the wishes of many who fear a flood repeat, the rain has not passed by Eastern Iowa.
”The rains over the weekend are going to push the lake level higher,” Castle said.
Over the next two days, run-off upstream will start gushing into the Lake and Castle explains when that happens the Lake comes up quicker.
More water in, means the Corps is pushing more water out into the Iowa River, but Castle anticipates that will not affect homeowners downstream.
”It will get up and near some of the residences just below the dam on the Stuart Road area but I believe even their road is above water,” Castle said.
Iowa City public works director Rick Fosse says flood-prone City Park and Dubuque Street may go under water again if the Corps keeps the output from the Lake at 10,000cfs and that is coupled with another heavy rainfall.
The Army Corps of Engineers expects the Lake will crest at 708.5 feet next Tuesday. Around that same time, Fosse said the Corps anticipates the Lake will have only about 12 percent of its storage space left.
The higher lake level has the attention of local leaders.
”We're uneasy enough that we're just keeping a close eye on the situation and dusting off our flood response plans,” Fosse said.
Still, more rain is in the forecast and no one wants to speculate what trouble that could cause.
”There's only so much we can do,” Castle said. “We can anticipate and maybe raise outflows a little bit. We're just waiting for it to get to the Lake.”
Fosse said representatives from Iowa City, Coralville, Johnson County, the University of Iowa who participated on a teleconference with the Army Corps of Engineers remain ”cautiously optimistic” that the area will not flood this year.
Iowa City has set up a new link called River Watch 2010 on its website so that citizens can get real-time information about river levels.
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Tom Bryant, of Tipton, (left) answers a question from his granddaughter, Brittany Ann Crowley, 10, of West Branch as they watch the outflow of the water released out of the Coralville Dam in Coralville on Monday, July 5, 2010. (Julie Koehn/The Gazette)
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