High waters dampen Fourth of July options

Eastern Iowa boaters will be hard pressed this holiday weekend to find safe or even accessible waters for their vessels.

The same floodwaters that have turned rivers and some lakes into muddy, debris-filled torrents also have limited camping opportunities for Iowans celebrating the Fourth of July.

'This would be a pretty good Fourth to enjoy with a cookout at home,” said Dee Goldman, operations manager for the Army Corps of Engineers at hard-hit Coralville Lake.

'Outdoor recreation will be really curtailed this weekend. Recent bad weather has taken a lot of options off the table,” said Dennis Goemaat, deputy director of the Linn County Conservation Department.

The conservation department advises boaters to stay off Linn County stretches of both the Cedar and Wapsipinicon rivers, Goemaat said. Besides the rivers being unsafe, 'all our boat ramps are closed by high water,” he said.

The Department of Natural Resources also urges boaters to stay off the Mississippi River along Iowa's entire eastern border.

The Johnson County Sheriff's Office has banned boating on the Iowa River and its major tributaries below the outflow of Coralville Lake. The ban includes canoeing, swimming, wading or any other recreational use of water in these areas.

Coralville Lake, while still open to boaters, remains hazardous.

Boating will be banned on Coralville Lake when it reaches 711 feet, which is slated to occur July 8, barring additional rain, Goldman said.

Floating debris and obstacles submerged by high water are the principal sources of danger to Coralville boaters, he said.

'For those reasons, I would strongly advise that anyone boating on Coralville wear a personal flotation device at all times,” Goldman said.

High water has submerged all the beaches, and only the Mehaffey boat ramp is open, Goldman said. High water also has closed about 95 of the Corps' 500 campsites at Coralville Lake, he said.

The Tailwater West campground was evacuated and closed Wednesday, and the entire West Overlook complex is closed, Goldman said.

On the Mississippi River, all gauges from Dubuque downstream are recording either moderate or major flooding, and the river is projected to rise for at least the next several days.

Heavy rainfall has created a much stronger than normal current and deposited large amounts of debris into the river creating unsafe boating conditions, the DNR said.

Access also is a major issue with an estimated 95 percent of the boat ramps under water along Iowa's border, according to DNR Conservation Officer Burt Walters.

Lock and Dam 17 near New Boston, Ill., and Lock and Dam 16 at Muscatine are closed to commercial and recreational boat traffic.

Two popular Johnson County campgrounds - Hills Access Park near Hills and the River Junction Access in southern Johnson County - are closed because of the flooding Iowa River, according to the Johnson County Conservation Department.

In Linn County, about half the campsites at Pinicon Ridge Park on the Wapsipinicon at Central City are under water, Goemaat said.

Flooding and strong winds also have taken a toll on state park campgrounds in Eastern Iowa.

George Wyth State Park, adjacent to the Cedar River in Black Hawk County, probably will be closed through the weekend.

The campground at Wapsipinicon State Park in Jones County, closed because of downed trees, reopened Wednesday, though a portion of the park remains closed because of flooding.

At Backbone State Park in Delaware County, the lower road, which had been closed by flash flooding, reopened Wednesday. The campground was unaffected and remains open.

Lake Macbride State Park in Johnson County has restored its electricity, and its campgrounds are back to normal, according to Tom Basten, the DNR's southeast Iowa parks supervisor. With high muddy water, beach conditions 'are not the best,” he said.

Most of the campsites at Fairport State Recreation Area in Muscatine County are flooded from the Mississippi River, Basten said.

The lower road leading to the beach and boat ramp at Palisades-Kepler State Park in Linn County is closed becaue of flooding, but the rest of the park is open.