City begins to clean up from Flood of ’08

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By Thomas Geyer | Thursday, May 01, 2008 |

Driftwood and other trash from the receding floodwaters pile up at the foot of Harrison Street in Davenport. Cleanup efforts will begin as the river continues to fall. (Larry Fisher/Quad-City Times) Buy this Photo

VIDEO: Flood 2008: Thursday morning
The Mississippi River is beginning to recede in downtown Davenport, leaving…
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Bob Harmsen of Davenport spent Thursday afternoon pushing a broom in the parking lot of his building on West River Drive across the street from Modern Woodmen Park.

As the Mississippi River floodwaters receded, it left debris on Harmsen’s property that he rents to the Burlington Trailways bus company. Marked near the back of the building is how high the water would have to get to touch his building: 21.07 feet.

“We kept it dry here at 22.6 feet,” Harmsen said, referring to the 1993 flood when the Mississippi crested at a record 22.63 feet in the Quad-Cities.

“It leaves so much stuff behind,” he said of the floodwaters as he shoved wood chips and sand out of his lot and into River Drive. He had sandbags propped up around his building, “but I’ve already taken those down,” he said.

Harmsen is among those who started cleaning up Thursday, a day after the river reached its 19.24 foot crest.

The river had fallen to 18.86 feet as of 6 p.m. Thursday, according to a measurement taken at Lock and Dam 15, Rock Island.

Meteorologist Bill Nichols of the National Weather Service, Davenport, said the Mississippi River is expected to fall below 17 feet by Monday evening. But storms moving in along with a cold front today have not been figured in that forecast, he said.

The city will continue its clean-up efforts today, said Davenport Public Works Director Dee Bruemmer.

“We’ll start picking up sand bags that didn’t touch the water,” Bruemmer said. “So we’re starting the clean clean-up. We’ll take those bags that businesses don’t need anymore so people will know they’re open.”

The city started cleaning some parking lots Thursday, she said, including the Florian Keen Municipal Parking Lot at Modern Woodman Park. City crews hosed down the lot where the floodwaters had been and pushed debris and silt back into the river.

“We’ll be cleaning as we go,” Bruemmer said. “We get the silt to follow the river, otherwise you have several crusts of the stuff.” As the cleaning is done, she added, the city uses a disinfectant.

After the cleaning is done, crews will assess any damage done by the floodwaters, she said.

“Our goal some time Sunday is to start pumping Marquette Street down,” Bruemmer said. “We would like to get River Drive open Monday. We also want to get (Rhythm City Casino) open as soon as possible. Of course, that depends on the river level.”

Davenport Fire Chief Mark Frese said the fire department may help wash the silt off the grass at LeClaire Park after the floodwaters recede.

“We’ll try to wash that down, too, but if there’s a lot of silt we could end up doing more harm than good, and tear stuff up,” Frese said. “It may be best to let it dry out first.”

The storms expected today developed Thursday evening over northwestern Missouri and eastern Kansas, Nichols said.

A cold front moving through the midwest may likely bring temperatures as low as the middle 50s on Saturday, he said.

He said thunderstorms could dump more than an inch of rain on the Quad-Cities, but rain north of U.S. 30 should generally be under an inch.

“You could have heavier amounts over an inch and up to two inches with the thunderstorms south of I-80,” Nichols said. “But we’ll have to wait and see.”

He doesn’t expect rain to the north will be enough to increase flooding along the Mississippi River.

“We’ll get some decent rains, but the river should continue to fall,” he said. “It just may be a little slower than is now occurring.”

Thomas Geyer can be contacted at (563) 383-2328 or tgeyer@qctimes.com.

Flooding closes some recreation areas

The weather may be getting nice enough for camping, but many recreation areas and campgrounds operated by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers along the Mississippi River are affected by flooding.

Thomson Rangers report closures at Thomson (Ill.) Causeway Recreation Area; Bulger’s Hollow Recreation Area, Clinton, Iowa; Lock and Dam 13 Recreation Area and Cattail Slough Recreation Area, Fulton, Ill., until flooding recedes and the areas are made safe for visitors. Fisherman’s Corner North Recreation Area, Hampton, Ill., is open and not affected by the flood.

Muscatine Rangers report Shady Creek Recreation Area will not open as scheduled this weekend. Clark’s Ferry and Shady Creek will not be accepting any new reservations through May 12. People with existing reservations through May 12 will be transferred to a different site. Blanchard Island, Andalusia Slough, Lock and Dam 16, Kilpeck Landing and Ferry Landing also are closed due to floodwaters.

As soon as possible after the waters recede, crews, volunteers and contractors will remove flood debris, mow and clean. Electrical pedestal components will be reinstalled and tested and water samples will be taken to confirm that the water is safe to drink. Camp pads, tables and fire rings will be pressure washed. Once the area dries out, recreation areas will be at least partially opened.

For more information about river levels, go to rivergages.com. For more information or questions about any of the closures, contact the Thomson Park Rangers at (815) 259-3628 or Muscatine Park Rangers at (563) 263-7913.