Monroe Lake at record level

Monroe Lake reached record levels Tuesday as runoff from the week's heavy rains caused the already-swollen lake to rise even higher. For the first time in the dam's 37-year history, water levels rose high enough to reach the emergency spillway, designed to handle overflow from the dam.\nThe U.S. Army Corps of Engineers plans on easing the dam's release rate up to 2200 cubic feet per second by late tonight, meeting the maximum normal release rate for the dam.\nSteve Rager, the district emergency manager for the corps, assured that the dam is doing its job.\n"We have it timed right now so the release will not create any additional flooding downstream," he said. "We may prolong, but we will not create."\nHeavy rains on Sunday night and into Monday morning backed up creeks and rivers, causing many road closings. As fair weather moves into central Indiana, officials at the Corps of Engineers expect no further problems -- unless it rains again.\n"If more rain comes in, all bets are off," Rager said.