DAVENPORT, Iowa — As the Mississippi River continues to spill out of its banks and inch toward its crest, some Davenport businesses are making adjustments.
The city has instructed the Freight House Farmers Market and businesses to close by 5 p.m. Friday, April 28. The farmers market vendors will be temporarily moving to the Scott County Administration Building parking lot at 600 W. 4th St. in Davenport.
But one downtown business not feeling any major impacts is the Figge Art Museum. At the river's current level of 20.11 feet on Thursday afternoon, water does touch the building along River Drive and parts of Harrison and Main Streets. However, the building's flood-fighting design means it won't sustain much damage.
"From 2nd Street, it's an incline," said Chief Financial Officer Todd Woeber. "It was built up and that allowed us to get the second floor, as you can see, as high as it is. Any water damage that would happen has to get above this foundation wall here. Pretty unlikely. So it was designed with a major flood in mind."
The only impact is on the building's first level, which is a parking garage, where no art or any other materials are stored. The parking garage has been closed off, so museum patrons will have to park elsewhere.
"The parking garage was made to have water come into it and made to have water go out," Woeber said. "Otherwise, it's really no impact to our operations. And we've seen just the opposite. We see more people coming down to the museum to take a look at the flood because it's a pretty good vantage point."
He added that there are holes drilled into the foundation so if water comes up through it, it can go back down. That takes pressure off the foundation's structure.
However, as the river keeps rising, the team at the Figge has prepared sandbags to line the entrance to the parking garage. Back in 2019 after the HESCO barriers were breached, the parking garage did get filled with water. Clean-up of the debris only took a few days.
"If the river gets to a certain level, it will get into here and all that debris will settle into the parking garage, so that's what we'll try to avoid," Woeber said. "We'll probably only need two or three sandbags high and then we'll be fine."
Admission to the Figge is free through the end of April.