Why did iowa flood and why is the the cities along the mississippi river going to flood soon?

Question

im confused at exactly what happened, whats going on, and why the cities going south along the mississippi going to flood later on in the weeks to come

Answer 1

It flooded because like the above poster said, we had too much rain.  Add that to all the snow they got up north that is now melted and coming down the river.  The towns will flood later down south because all the water has to go south.  The water that is flooded here will eventually go down south(this Tuesday through Thursday flood waters will be cresting) causing them to have more water than the river can hold and in turn, they will flood also.

Answer 2

Iowa and many other surrounding states have received huge amounts rain in a very short period of time.  In fact, Iowa state Governor Chet Culver said that, "We are not talking about 100 year flood stages, but potentially 500 year events." (http://www.nonpareilonline.com/site/news...

Further, there are many rivers in the area where this excess rainwater drains.  The rivers flowing through towns have long since reached the flood stage and the ground cannot absorb any more water since it is already saturated.  That causes the towns to be flooded.

The rivvers that are now above flood stage are tributaries of the Mississippi River.  So all of that water will eventually makes its way to the Mississippi which would mean flodding for towns along that river.