Floodgate opens at Broadway; rain forecast

The Broadway gate in the Cape Girardeau floodwall opened early Thursday, evidence of the continuing fall of the Mississippi River since its crest at 41.04 feet early Monday morning.

The floodgate on North Main Street near the Red Star neighborhood opened Wednesday, and crews working for Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railroad opened the gate across the railroad tracks north of downtown Cape Girardeau.

The river gauge read 36.2 feet at 6:30 p.m. Thursday.

The gate opened as forecasters called for the river to continue falling, with expectations that it will go below the flood stage of 32 feet by Saturday morning. Andy Juden, president of the Main Street Levee District, said he anticipates opening the Themis Street gate in the floodwall Saturday morning.

Forecasters, however, are also predicting wet weather for the next several days, with possibilities for 1 to 2 inches of rain across much of the region through tonight. A short dry spell should follow from tonight through Sunday morning, forecasters with the National Weather Service office in Paducah, Ky., predicted, with rain, potentially heavy, returning Sunday through Monday night.

A "bona fide wet period will begin Sunday," predicted a forecast discussion on the Paducah weather station Web site. Tuesday night and Wednesday should be dry "before the next system moves into the area with yet more precipitation" Wednesday night and April 3, the forecast issued at 3:20 p.m. Thursday predicted.

rkeller@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 126