Residents along the Upper Mississippi River are scrambling to protect or flee their homes ahead of potentially record-breaking floods. The heavy snowpack in northern Minnesota is melting rapidly, forcing residents of Campbell, Wisc., to canoe to their homes. “It’s pretty stressful,” Amy Werner told the AP. “It’s bubbling up from the ground. I’ve been living my life by every hour for about 10 days now, and it’s not over yet.” About 60 miles downriver in Prairie du Chien, the river was already more than 6 feet above flood stage on Wednesday, with streets submerged under a foot of water, and flood waters were expected to rise to nearly 25 feet by Saturday.

In California, flood waters have arrived and will continue to rise. “You can look at a scene like this and think the worst is going to recede, the worst is behind us, but in fact, quite the contrary,” Gov. Gavin Newsom told reporters in Corcoran where he surveyed the farmland now submerged under the refilled Lake Tulare. “Every day, you’re seeing an incremental half-inch or inch of more water, new water, present itself here in this basin,” Newsom added. “As a consequence, we not only need to maintain our vigilance, but we can’t be impatient in terms of the impending floods and the damage that will occur here in a very short order.” (Upper Mississippi: AP; Prairie du Chien: WKBT; California: LA Times $, NBC; Yosemite closed: Washington Post $, The Hill)