Flooding At Maquoketa Caves

[Wayne Harrison]

The Maquoketa Caves State Park in Iowa draws people from all over the Midwest and all over the country for that matter. However, a huge storm on Tuesday night that brought five to six inches of rain all at once and it caused a huge problem for one of the park's most popular attractions.

"Most of the attractions in the park are in one large valley, and that's where the water was running," says park ranger Jim Magril.

Down in that valley is the park’s trails and caves. However, those caves and nearby hiking trails are now closed after being inundated with water. It's a problem for visitors like Mindy Harson from the Quad Cities, who brought visiting relatives from New Mexico to the park.

"We wanted to bring our cousins and sister to see them, so we packed our picnic lunch and headed up here today and the caves are closed," comments Harson.

It’s obvious why the park’s caves and trails are closed. The walk-ways are washed out, and a large amount of debris has built up throughout the cave.

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[John Lovaas]

I was just looking at Iowa river stages, and the Maquoketa River gauge near Maquoketa went from 900 cfm to just over 10,000 cfm in 6 hours in the early hours of July 4; stage over the same period went from just under 10' to just over 22'- yikes!