Flood — Linn, Iowa

2016-09-26 to 2016-09-30 · near Covington, Linn, Iowa

Event narrative

Heavy rainfall of 4 to over 10 inches over significant areas from 21 to 23 September in extreme North Central and Northeast Iowa moved downstream causing the Cedar River to rise above major flood stage levels.

Cedar Rapids rose above its major flood stage level of 16.0 feet on September 25th, 2016 at approximately 10 PM CST. It crested around 22.0 feet at approximately 8 AM CST on September 26th, 2016. It fell below major flood stage on September 30th around 6 AM CST.

Over 100 buildings and homes were impacted by the flooding. Dozens of blocks were closed of due to temporary barriers related to the flooding for a few to several days.

Local agencies reported 27 roads were closed across the county.

Roughly 100 homes were evacuated in Palo, a community near Cedar Rapids along the Cedar River.

All the bridges except for the I-380 were closed. All schools in Cedar Rapids were closed for 3 days.

This was the second highest crest on record, surpassed only by the crest of 31.12 feet in 2008.

Wider weather episode

Significant record to near record heavy rainfall in North Central and Northeast Iowa from 21 to 23 September of 4 to over 10 plus inches caused major river flooding on many forecast points on the Iowa tributaries of the Wapsipinicon, Cedar, lower Iowa, and Maquoketa rivers. Then major river flooding occurred downstream on the Mississppi River from the Iowa River and Mississippi River convergence and south.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (42.0049, -91.8237)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 661496. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.