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Second Round Of Major Spring Flooding Already Higher Than Previous One

The Mississippi River surpassed 43 feet on the Chester (Illinois) gauge on Monday (May 27) and is headed for 44.5 feet early next week, according to the National Weather Service’s Advanced Hydrological Prediction.

The high-water mark as of Monday topped the 42.46 feet that the river measured at Chester on May 7.

That May 7 mark was sixth all time on the list of historic crests on the National Weather Service website.

The list of top 10 crests at Chester includes one dating back to 1844.

All but one one of the top seven on the list have been since 1993 and four of the top seven have been since 2013. Some infrastructure in Ste. Genevieve County — such as the Riverside Levee and New Bourbon Port Road — has either recently been repaired or is still going to be repaired from damage done during the winter 2015-16 and spring 2017 floods.

The Monday forecast for the current flooding, based on projected rain expectations over two days from the forecast, was for a mark of 44.5 feet on Tuesday, June 4, through Thursday, June 6.

See complete story in the May 22 edition of the Herald.

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