Mississippi River Floods Persist

LA CROSSE, Wis. (Reuters) - The Mississippi River, out if its banks in a three-week flood across parts of four upper Midwestern states, bedeviled waterlogged river cities on Monday as another surge of water coursed downstream.

The National Weather Service said the swollen river reached a second crest at La Crosse on Monday slightly lower than an earlier high mark set last week. Heavy rains at the northern end of the watershed a week ago caused the latest rise.

The new crest was expected to hold through about Wednesday, after which the river will fall slowly, forecaster said.

``It's kind of status quo right now,'' said Tony Huchins of the La Crosse Public Works Department. ``Our problem is that the longer the river stays up the more the ground water reacts to it. So we're getting more basements with seepage and that puts an additional burden on our sanitary system.''

The flood stage at La Crosse is 12 feet, a mark the river passed at the city on April 12. Monday's crest was nearly 4 feet over flood stage.

Downstream at Davenport, Iowa, the river was falling slowly and forecasters said there would be no second crest -- just a slowdown in the rate at which the river falls from the high point reached last week.

``We're ready for the clean-up,'' said Jennifer Nara in the mayor's office. ``We're getting ready to reopen some streets and we've got crews ready to go.''

For many communities in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa and Illinois the flooding was the second highest ever recorded.