Saturday storms no worry to river levels

Heavy rain Saturday night fortunately had little effect on river levels in the area.

The Cedar River in Cedar Rapids was at 6.35 feet as of noon Sunday, its lowest level in several weeks. That is well below the river's flood stage of 12 feet.

'There was really no change to the Cedar River,” Public Works Maintenance Manager Craig Hanson said. He added that although the weekend rain was intense at times, most of it fell to the south of Cedar Rapids.

Though the rain had little effect on river levels, it did damage trees around the city, create flash flooding on several streets and cause some brief power outages.

'Everyone was back on by the mid-evening hours,” said Justin Foss, a spokesman for Alliant Energy. Foss said the storm knocked out power to 4,000 in the Cedar Rapids area, but all power was back on around 9 p.m. He also said the company had identified a few areas that saw damage from lightning strikes.

Hanson said the city will continue to work on removing tree branches not only from the most recent storm, but also from heavy rainfall at the end of June. He said about 150 tons of tree branches already have been picked up by the city, but more than 200 tons of branches still are estimated to be awaiting pickup.

Johnson County

The Iowa River was just above 23 feet Sunday afternoon, which is considered moderate flood stage, and projections show it climbing to 24.5 feet by Monday morning. But that level still is lower than the 25 feet the Iowa River was at immediately before Saturday's rainfall.

At Coralville Lake, Army Corps of Engineers projections show that even with Saturday's rain, lake levels will remain below the 708.2-foot peak it hit July 8. However, the forecast outflow for the Iowa River now will remain at 18,000 cubic feet per second past July 16.

l Comments: katelynn.mccollough@sourcemedia.net