Drinking water is expected to be on by noon Thursday in this northern Iowa city.

The city administrator said Tuesday systems should be set for flushing by Wednesday. There had been concerns about contaminated underground storage tanks. The city announced the tanks are OK.

After the Iowa Department of Natural Resources takes water sample Wednesday, the drinking water should be ready for consumption Thursday.

Water has been available via FEMA in front of the Hobby Lobby store.

A curfew in effect Sunday and Monday nights has been lifted.

Meanwhile, restaurants and other water-related businesses remain closed.

City workers and volunteers are filling sandbags and loading them onto pallets to take across the city. Rain is forecasted for Wednesday night and the city wants sandbags ready to protect the water plant, fire station and other areas already soaking from the record floods.

Mason City police have had a few reports of people swimming in the high water.

In Chickasaw County, the sheriff’s department got a report Monday night of men trying to put a boat in the flood waters on South Main Street in Bassett. The caller said the men appeared drunk.

Chickasaw county deputies found the men. Officers arrested Steve Cerwinkse, 51 for boating while intoxicated but has yet to make his first court appearance.

Sheriff Marty Larsen is reminding people that being on or near flood waters is extremely dangerous.

A portion of a railroad bridge that crosses the Cedar River in Waterloo has been swept away by raging flood waters.

About one-third of the bridge washed away around 2:45 p.m. on Tuesday. A portion of the bridge struck a street bridge and another piece washed downriver.

The bridge is used by the Iowa Northern Railroad to transport tractors from the John Deere Tractor Works to Cedar Rapids.

A railroad spokesman says the railroad is assessing the affects of the bridge washout.

Officials in Cedar Falls are telling residents and business owners in downtown to begin preparing for a possible evacuation as the Cedar River is expected to top a levee that protects the area.

Police say downtown is being blocked off and no one is being allowed in.

Police Capt. Mike Hayes says sandbagging is being done to protect the downtown but that people should be prepared to evacuate later Tuesday.

The river was more than 11 feet above flood stage Tuesday morning.