ST. LOUIS, June 3 (UPI) -- The U.S. Coast Guard Monday closed a 5-mile stretch of the Mississippi River in St. Louis to navigation because of high water, officials said.
The Coast Guard said it shut down travel on the section of the river between the McKinley Bridge and the Merchants Bridge for safety reasons, KMOX-AM reported.
Dave Busse with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers said the Mississippi was at 40 feet in St. Louis, about 9 feet below its historic 1993 crest. The river is expected to stay about that high until it starts to recede sometime Tuesday, he said, making it "about the fifth- or sixth-largest flood in the history of St. Louis."
City crews have closed 23 of 30 flood gates so far. St. Louis' flood protection system is rated to 50 feet by the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
Up river at Muscatine, Iowa, the Corps said it would close Lock 16 at Muscatine Tuesday and Lock 19 at Keokuk Wednesday, the Muscatine Journal reported.
The newspaper said Lock 20 at Canton, Mo., Lock 21 in Quincy, Ill., and Lock 22 in Saverton, Mo., all closed last week.
