The Mississippi River in St. Paul is on the rise again.

St. Paul Public Works officials are warning residents that a late April snowfall followed by rains are pushing river levels up.

Warner and Shepard roads remain closed, as they have been for nearly a month. So too are the city’s “floodplain parks,” such as Upper Landing, Lower Landing, Raspberry Island, Harriet Island, Crosby Farm and others. As are boat launches.

In short, the spring melt over, but not much has changed in terms of river level.

In St. Paul, the Mississippi River reached 15.6 feet by Friday afternoon, well into moderate flood stage. The National Weather Service projects that it will crest at 18.3 feet by Wednesday afternoon.

This ain’t over. Shepard Road is still closed, and the waters are rising. Again. pic.twitter.com/VRn0YBdZxU — FredMelo, Reporter (@FrederickMelo) April 19, 2019

“The water levels are rising again,” said St. Paul Public Works spokeswoman Lisa Hiebert. “We are currently back in that moderate flood stage, and we anticipate a second crest just over 18 feet, which is major flood stage.”

On March 31, the Mississippi crested at 20.19 feet in St. Paul, the seventh highest level on record. Given heavy late-winter snowfall, officials had feared for even worse flood conditions, but the initial spring melt proceeded gradually with little rainfall.

There’s no need to batten down the hatches or run for the hills now, but that wedding you may have canceled on Harriet Island? It’s still canceled.

The small levee system that the city put in place at Jackson and Sibley streets is still up.

St. Paul begins to roll out its flood action plan and close low-lying streets as a precautionary measure when river waters reach 10 feet above the “ordinary high water level,” which occurred around March 24.

As a rule of thumb, at 13.3 feet, water begins to encroach on Water Street. At official flood stage, which is 14 feet, portions of Lilydale Regional Park begin to flood. At 17.5 feet, Harriet Island begins to go underwater. At 18 feet, Warner Road is impassable.

“The good news is that the water will go back down again, but in the meantime, all of our flood-protection measures that we put in place a couple weeks ago are still in place,” Hiebert said. Related Articles Marchers shut down I-94 through St. Paul to protest Breonna Taylor decision

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Though some assessments are already underway, it will take sometime before water levels drop enough for Public Works crews to complete thorough inspections of roads and public facilities.

“In a lot of areas, the water was still too high,” Hiebert said.

To keep up with the latest flood forecast and road and park closures, visit stpaul.gov.

Other rivers in southern Minnesota are also rising again, with second crests expected soon.

Information about individual river forecasts is available at water.weather.gov.