Flooding shuts 3 Iowa power plants

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Alliant Energy Corp's Interstate Power & Light subsidiary shut three coal-fired power plants in Iowa due to flooding and reported some 23,000 customers in the state without power, a company spokesman said on Friday.

The three plants were the 72-megawatt Sixth Street and the 185 MW Prairie Creek stations in Linn County and the 143 MW Sutherland station in Marshall County.

At full output, the three plants could generate enough power for about 320,000 homes and businesses.

IP&L started to warn its Iowa and Wisconsin customers of flooding on June 9. The company started to shut the power in downtown Cedar Rapids, Iowa on June 11 as the area was evacuated due to the potential for flooding.

(Reporting by Scott DiSavino; Editing by David Gregorio)