Early February thaw jams up Upper Iowa River ...

Mississippi River guide Ted Peck of New Albin snapped and shared this photo Monday, February 4 around 2 p.m. of an ice jam on the Upper Iowa River near the intersection of State Highway 26 and Black Hawk Road about two miles south of New Albin in Allamakee County. Peck had been observing the ice jam, explaining that it began at the railroad bridge located just to the east of the State Highway 26 bridge pictured in the photo above and estimating that it had raised the river level in that area at a rate of nearly one foot per hour. Crews from Canadian Pacific Railroad were on scene to clear some of the ice away from that railroad bridge, which sits lower than the Hwy. 26 bridge pictured above and caused the flowing ice chunks from the previous weekend’s thaw to back up well past that highway bridge, as evident in the above photo. Allamakee County Emergency Management Coordinator Corey Snitker said as of Tuesday, February 5 water was flowing underneath both bridges, along with some ice chunks occasionally hanging up along the river bank edges. Snitker also said the ice jams did not hit the underside of the Hwy. 26 bridge but obviously gathered around its pillars, with the Iowa Department of Transportation monitoring the bridge but not having to take any action. Snitker also said water from the Upper Iowa River backed up into adjacent fields and toward nearby Black Hawk Road, but has since slowly subsided. Photo courtesy of Ted Peck.