What's left of Hurricane Isaac, which has moved north from the Gulf Coast into the central U.S., is dropping rain on drought-parched southeast Iowa.
The National Weather Service says a steady rain, heavy at times, is expected over the region, including the city of Burlington, throughout Saturday and into Sunday. Up to four inches is expected by the end of Sunday in some areas.
Lee County Emergency Management Coordinator Steve Cirinna said the area is expected to benefit from the rain. Cirinna said that because the drought has left the region's waterways depleted, they should be able to handle rain runoff even if rainfall exceeds four inches. However, he said a deluge of more than five inches would cause flooding in some spots.
The threat of heavy rain isn't keeping campers away from state parks over the Labor Day weekend. Iowa Department of Natural Resources spokesman Mick Klemesrud said campgrounds in the area "are filled to capacity" for the weekend. That includes Lacey Keosauqua State Park at Keosauqua and Geode State Park near Burlington.
Klemesrud said while the storm system is bringing rain, it's also driving temperatures down, a welcome relief to an area that's endured triple-digit heat for much of the summer. Klemesrud said daytime temperatures in the 70s "makes it so you can sit outside and visit."
The remnants of Hurricane Isaac are spinning off tornadoes in southeast Missouri and dumping several inches of rain on the state.
Frank Casteel of the Butler County Sheriff's Department said two tornadoes touched down in the county late Saturday afternoon, but the only damage he knew of was some power lines on fire.
Casteel said the sheriff witnessed one of the tornadoes touch down in a rural area about 11 miles northeast of Popular Bluff. Trained storm spotters saw the second tornado cut a five-mile path through the southeastern part of the county.
In Missouri's Bootheel region, Dunklin County sheriff's deputies tracked a tornado that destroyed a farm shop and damaged a home's roof.
The storm also dumped four to six inches of rain between Kansas City and Kirksville.
