Missouri River flooding

[SturgisJeff]

Re: Missouri River flooding

This was taken up in Bismarck. Watch all the way through the end.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RUCMa...&feature=share

When I was living in San Diego we had severe flooding on the Tijuana River coming out of mexico. There was a bridge going over the river, not a big bridge the river wasnt too wide, any way we watched it for two hours as it finally washed out and fell into the river. Pretty cool to watch too bad no camera. A road farther down washed out so there was no way to get to the neighborhood along the border unless you took a helicopter. At least 10 illegals drowned officially, and hundreds rescued. they still find skeletons in the valley from that flood.

[jackmd]

Re: Missouri River flooding

When I was living in San Diego we had severe flooding on the Tijuana River coming out of mexico. There was a bridge going over the river, not a big bridge the river wasnt too wide, any way we watched it for two hours as it finally washed out and fell into the river. Pretty cool to watch too bad no camera. A road farther down washed out so there was no way to get to the neighborhood along the border unless you took a helicopter. At least 10 illegals drowned officially, and hundreds rescued. they still find skeletons in the valley from that flood.

Friend from the corp says Yankton is going to go well above the 150,000 cfs they initially predicted as the max outflow at Gavins due to the rainfall thus far and the anticipation of even more. Of course, they are trying to preserve, provide the capacity needed to contain that additional water. This is at the expense of those down river.

[mango4]

Re: Missouri River flooding

It has basically been raining in Pierre for two days know. Last night, after leaving work, one of the major roads in town (Sioux) which is only a few blocks from the river was flooded. Water was up to my car doors and motorists are being cautioned to avoid using that road. Corps is saying that the releases from the Oahe Dam will stay at 160,000 cfs, but who knows right now.

Good news is that it's suppose to clear up Wednesday and Thursday. Bad news is that more rain is in the forecast over the weekend.

[slosho]

Re: Missouri River flooding

and now highway 83 is closed in ft pierre from 9th to 8th... ppl have to use sale barn road

[leeshajo]

Re: Missouri River flooding

Gavins going to 160,000 CFS as of Thursday per today's conference call with the corp... quick brief at yankton.net more to follow tomorrow.

[mango4]

Re: Missouri River flooding

Right now Oahe is down to 150,000 cfs due to all of the rain. It will last a day or two and then it's going to be kicked back up to 160,000

[Hammersmith]

Re: Missouri River flooding

About to lose 1/4 of Minot. Water to the top of the primary dikes. City warned people/media the dike was about to fail, but repairs have bought a little more time to continue work on secondary dikes. Around four more feet of water is expected, so the bought time is measured in minutes to an hour. 11,000 residents have been evacuated and will be homeless. It is expected that the flood will be 7ft above the previous record.

The local TV station is broadcasting live on the web: http://www.ustream.tv/channel/kxmcwe...medium=3958274

[mango4]

Re: Missouri River flooding

Homes along the Bad River in Fort Pierre are being strongly advised to evacuate. My fear is that they are going to have to open the emergency spillway at Oahe and unlike Fort Peck and Garrison, it's not lined with concrete so who knows where the water is going to go.

I find it humerus that some of my friends in Brookings are complaining that it's been raining and ruining their summer, I would gladly trade them right now.

[rabidrabbit]

Re: Missouri River flooding

Homes along the Bad River in Fort Pierre are being strongly advised to evacuate. My fear is that they are going to have to open the emergency spillway at Oahe and unlike Fort Peck and Garrison, it's not lined with concrete so who knows where the water is going to go.

I find it humerus that some of my friends in Brookings are complaining that it's been raining and ruining their summer, I would gladly trade them right now.

The flow path for the emergency spillway is pretty clear, running down the dry trib to reenter the Mo R. just DS of where the turbine channel and the main overflow channel join downstream. However a portion of the flow could potentially stay landward of the RR track/1806 hwy, especially if in backwater of Big Bend. A bigger issue of concern is if the flows may head cut to the emergency spillway. That could be REALLY bad. IIRC, it is populated and armored with a lot of big boulders to prevent that though.

[mango4]

Re: Missouri River flooding

That sounds right but I wasn't sure how far the channel went. I knew it was pretty defined at the beginning, just wasn't sure how far down the definition went, I thought after you got out of the first bit, it wasn't as defined but I'm probably wrong.

[Pierre_Jacks_Fan]

Re: Missouri River flooding

The spillway flow will stay on USACE Project operational lands and should not impact private ground. Well....other than add additional flows to the record releases. I am hopefull the weather will allow us to evacuate needed capacity in the reservoir soon and give us some breathing room.

[rabidrabbit]

Re: Missouri River flooding

The USACE keeps a daily log so that any one may track. IMHO, the USACE is doing a very good job on keeping every one informed about what will be a summer long battle.

http://us.vocuspr.com/ViewAttachment...ce=twitterfeed

Check out the last page of diagrams. Ft Peck, Garrison and Oahe are 85% of the storage capacity of the system. So basically, there is no storage in the lower three. IF the goal is to protect Sioux City, Omaha, and KC. there are few opportunities to do so after water leaves Oahe. Given that travel time is about 1 week from Pierre to Omaha, there is little chance to correct if a rain event hits below Gavins (This means Jamestown, ND also BTW)

This will be a very rough year for the Pierre, Ft. Pierre and Dakota Dunes. It may be August before get to move back in, if not substantially damaged.

[hareball]

Re: Missouri River flooding

The same diagrams show only .4 MAF flood control left in the entire system. To put this into context, within the past 5 days, despite record releases, the system has added 1.0 MAF. One more heavy wide spread rain anywhere in the upper Missouri River basis will be disastrous at levels we cannot even imagine. It appears to me that government officials, as well as the news media, are failing to comprehend how close we are to the Missouri becoming a free flowing river.

[HoboD]

Re: Missouri River flooding

The same diagrams show only .4 MAF flood control left in the entire system. To put this into context, within the past 5 days, despite record releases, the system has added 1.0 MAF. One more heavy wide spread rain anywhere in the upper Missouri River basis will be disastrous at levels we cannot even imagine. It appears to me that government officials, as well as the news media, are failing to comprehend how close we are to the Missouri becoming a free flowing river.

Believe me folks here in Pierre and Ft. Pierre are very aware of how close we are to having water go over the emergency spillway.

[mango4]

Re: Missouri River flooding

The same diagrams show only .4 MAF flood control left in the entire system. To put this into context, within the past 5 days, despite record releases, the system has added 1.0 MAF. One more heavy wide spread rain anywhere in the upper Missouri River basis will be disastrous at levels we cannot even imagine. It appears to me that government officials, as well as the news media, are failing to comprehend how close we are to the Missouri becoming a free flowing river.

I can't speak for media in other towns along the river but the media in Pierre is very aware of how close this is to being a free flowing river. Trust me on that one.

Maybe the media in Sioux Falls and Rapid City aren't aware how close it is but I can almost guarantee you that media in towns this is affecting know how close it is. I know the media in Pierre does.