While Ames is high and dry this spring, residents in Davenport and other eastern Iowa communities aren’t as lucky.

Some ISU students are worried about how their hometowns are dealing with the overflowing Mississippi river.

Brian Huinker, junior in mechanical engineering, visited Davenport just last weekend.

“It’s pretty bad. The downtown area is all flooded,” he said. “I was supposed to go The Dock for dinner for my girlfriend’s grandparents’ anniversary, but the water was up to the top of the door. All you could see was the roof.”

Davenport Public Works Director Dee Bruemmer said in an interview with CNN.com that “the city has spent more than $1 million to combat the floods, which peaked at 22.3 feet on Tuesday – the third-highest flood ever to drench the Quad Cities area. Only 1965 (22.48 feet) and 1993 (22.6 feet) levels topped it.”

The end is not near for Davenport residents. The article on CNN.com also stated that officials expect a second crest, possibly by Sunday. They said they expect it to be a few inches lower than the recent 22.3 foot crest.

Amanda Moeller, another Davenport native attending Iowa State, will see the river crest when she is home visiting her parents this weekend.

“I’ve already seen it all on TV,” she said. “It’s hilarious to listen to the mayor on TV. And the 78-year-old guy whose house is flooded, but refuses to leave his house. His son has to bring him food.”

Moeller, sophomore in agricultural business, said her family’s farm isn’t close enough to the river to be affected. However, all the rain has delayed planting corn and has them concerned.

“They should have started planting this morning,” Moeller said. “It was just too wet before. They should have started planting two or three weeks ago.”

Elizabeth Lichtenberg, sophomore in meteorology, hasn’t been back to her hometown of Bluegrass, but heard about all the flooding problems.

“I . heard it’s just like it was in 1993,” she said. “It’s really bad.”

Lichtenberg said there’s been some talk about Davenport building a flood wall.

According to CNN.com, Davenport is the only major town on the Upper Mississippi River that has elected not to build a permanent flood wall, even though sandbag levees haven’t been able to keep water out of the downtown area.

Moeller thinks the city should start looking into building a wall.

“I think this year’s a lot worse. It seems like the water is higher on the streets than it has been before,” she said. “But I don’t think we’ll get the wall. There’s some people who are stubborn and bull-headed who don’t want a flood wall. They say it’s a scenic thing, but it’s just a river.”

Both Huinker and Lichtenberg remember helping with the 1993 flood clean-up.

“It was quite the experience,” Lichtenberg said. “We were sand-bagging and trying to save an elderly woman’s house, and it never got flooded.”

Huinker said no matter what happens, Davenport residents will bounce back.

“They have had these experiences before. Businesses have been affected,” he said. “It’s not easy. I plan to help out in a couple weeks when I go back home for the summer.”