With rain falling and rivers rising, towns along waterways braced for potential flooding on Thursday.

Emergency management teams prepared as creeks threatened to spill over their banks across southwest Iowa.

The Missouri River was running high and so was the Nishnabotna. The latter was running at 28.5 feet near Hamburg on Thursday and officials said they would have problems if it rose to 33 feet.

South of the metro, in Weeping Water, floodwaters were receding Thursday but the area was not out of danger. Residents were waiting for what's upstream. Weeping Water Creek was well out of its banks.

Farther downstream, at Union, Weeping Water Creek was out of its banks. Water over the bridge shut down Highway 34 for a while on Thursday.

In southeast Lancaster County, water pushed over some roads and into fields.

All roads that cross Salt Creek or cross streams that feed into that creek were closed. The currents in those areas were very swift. Road blocks were set up in some areas.