Mississippi River in La Crosse reaches moderate flood levels

LA CROSSE, Wis. (WEAU) – La Crosse, Vernon, and Houston Counties are under warnings due to flooding along the Mississippi River.

Impacted areas around La Crosse include Riverside Park and Goose Island Campground. Campground owners say about 60 percent of the campsite is uncampable and they’ve had to deny multiple reservations.

National Weather Service Forecaster Mike Kurz says the recent weather has been a huge factor in the flooding.

“We’ve had a very active severe weather pattern and heavy rain pattern over the last couple months. All that accumulation of heavy rain in the river basins across the area have been gradually draining into the Mississippi River basin,” says Kurz.

The National Weather Service says the rivers will crest at nearly 15 feet.

“That will be kind of heading right into the 4th of July holiday. It’s continuing to increase right now it’s about 14.7 feet, so it’s slowly increasing. Because of all the water in the system right now, it’s expected to be a prolonged crest. It’ll take a long time for the water to gradually recede as we get out of the crest period later this week,” says Kurz.

National Weather Service forecasters add that these water levels are unusual this time of year.

“For La Crosse, this is the latest in the calendar year that we’ve had river levels this high approaching 14.9 feet. The most recent would have been 1993 in the end of June, where it crested just above 14 feet,” says Kurz.

The National Weather Service says they do not expect water levels to rise much higher than 15 feet, which means the area record of 17.9 feet will stay.

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