Cairo Flooding Surpasses 150th Day

A milestone was reached Sunday on the Ohio River at Cairo, but no one felt like celebrating.

Sunday marked the 150th consecutive day that the Ohio has been in flood stage at Cairo. While the rest of the river upstream has returned to more normal levels, the swollen Mississippi River has kept Ohio waters backed up since it rose over the 40-foot mark on February 8.

The streak actually went into the record book weeks ago, after passing the old mark of 97 straight days set in 1973.

As of Sunday night, the Cairo gauge was at 45.3 feet. The river has been slowly receding for the past week.

A hopeful river forecast indicates the consecutive day streak could soon end when the Ohio at Cairo is expected to fall below flood stage by next weekend.

The Mississippi River is also receding slowly, but only recently fell below major flood stage at Cape Girardeau in the past week. As of Sunday night the Cape river gauge was at 40.1 feet.

On the other side of the river, parts of Illinois Route 3 near Ware and McClure have been under water since April, some parts recently because of levee breaks.

The river at Cape could stay above flood stage of 32 feet for most of the rest of July.

Major flooding is still occurring in several locations along the length of the Mississippi River, as well as a section of the Missouri River and one gauge on the Kaskaskia River in Illinois near where it runs into the Mississippi.