Elkhorn River access sites remain closed through the Fourth of July holiday due to heavy rains in the Omaha area.
The The Papio-Missouri River Natural Resources District will open the sites once water levels in the Elkhorn recede to five feet or lower.
Affected access points include the following, according to NRD: Platte River Landing on Nebraska Highway 64 west of Valley; Elkhorn Crossing, 252nd Street and Bennington Road; and Graske Crossing, by West Dodge Road and west of 204th Street.
Riverwest park at 233rd and West Maple is one of the areas affected by the closure. The campground specializes as a recreation area with swimming and tubing.
Bill Novak, director of operations, at Riverwest park says the rain this year is reminiscent of flooding in 2010.
"The rain and the river level dropping; it's going down," said Novak. "It's almost at eight feet right now, which is good. It was up to near 14 feet last week with rain, so it's dropping at a pretty good decline rate right now."
"We don't put anyone on the river over five and a half feet. But we assess everything at five and a half feet; if nothing is floating down the river at five feet, and it's a declining water level, we will put people in."
Tubing is expected to remain closed through the holiday and is expected to open for the weekend.
