Nebraska Floodwater News Headlines of the Day 6/3/2011

The Omaha District office of the US Army Corps of Engineers posted a Public Safety Message News Release yesterday.  http://www.nwo.usace.army.mil/html/pa/pahm/NR060211d.pdf


“Our number one priority is to save lives and our goal is to promote public safety, first and foremost,” says Omaha District Commander Col. Robert Ruch. “We ask the public to be aware of rising  floodwaters and to please practice safety throughout this period of high water.” 


Other news from around the State is interesting.


AP Photo/Sioux City Journal, Tim Hynds 
Flooding rated as 10 by state emergency officials
http://journalstar.com/news/local/article_47392598-56b8-5563-80fc-781239e1471b.html


"In the latest in a series of history-making decisions, the Corps announced it would open spillway gates Friday morning on the Big Bend Dam near Fort Thompson, S.D., to pass floodwater from Lake Sharpe to Lake Francis Case for the first time since the dam went into service in 1963.


And a levee related quote from Mike Jess, former director of the Nebraska Department of Water Resources, "There are levees that will presumably protect property. But what we discover is that, with the river at high elevations for long periods, the groundwater rises behind the levees."



THE WORLD-HERALD Photo, DANIELLE BEEBE

Missouri River Flooding: Corps gets a torrent of questions

http://omaha.com/article/20110603/NEWS01/706039901#missouri-river-flooding-corps-gets-a-torrent-of-questions

"In a scene being repeated up and down the Missouri River this week, the people of Monona County gathered Thursday at the West Monona Community School to get their questions answered.

"(Monona County) Sheriff Jeff Pratt and Randy Behm of the corps' Omaha District office tried to provide the answers. The audience of nearly 1,000 people was unfailingly polite, applauding Behm as he was introduced."

Journal photo by Jim Lee

Local officials grapple with rumor control

http://www.siouxcityjournal.com/

"When rumors start up, they run like a grass fire," Sioux City Fire Chief Tom Everett said during a briefing for the media at The Security Institute on the campus of Western Iowa Tech Community College.

Consequently, Sioux City and Woodbury County residents may call a new flood response hotline at 224-5262. City and county employees will answer six lines daily from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Hotlines have also been established for Nebraska and South Dakota residents."

Photo by George Lauby
Flood water rising
http://www.northplattebulletin.com/index.asp?show=news&action=readStory&storyID=20865&pageID=3&sectionID=3

"For a week, they’ve watched the water rise. It will get worse.

“We got some more bad news today,” (John) Simants told the Bulletin. “The Army Corps of Engineers is taking over. On Friday, they will go to Wyoming and assess all the reservoirs, decide which gates will be opened and how far. They said it could be a lot of water.”

Estimates of how high the river will get have already steadily increased. A week ago, the crest was expected to be 7.2 feet. On Tuesday the river reached 7.4 feet and the crest estimate increased to 8 feet.

A crest of 6.5 feet is considered a major flood.

The crest could come at 9 or 10 feet, Simants has been told. No one knows for sure."

Mississippi River Tests the Old River Control Structure - Historical Comparison

How much energy do you imagine is behind Mississippi River flows of 2 million cubic feet per second - sustained for three months?  The Army Corps of Engineers is confident that it is not enough to bring down the Old River Control Structure currently preventing the River from charting a new course down the Atchafalaya River valley (which, by the way, the Mississippi would prefer to do!).  Let's hope they are correct as more than just a river diversion structure is at risk if it does not.  I encourage you to take just a couple minutes to pour over this articulate summary from Weather Underground http://www.wunderground.com/blog/JeffMasters/comment.html?entrynum=1801.

The graphics, history, and description of possible impacts are eye popping.  The graph in the article displayed the (now previous) 1973 record flood event by comparison and is a snapshot taken May 13, 2011.  The most current version will be found at the following link for you to observe http://www.mvn.usace.army.mil/eng/edhd/lat.gif.  At the time of this post, the 1973 event had just been exceeded and was still climbing rapidly.

Source: US Army Corps of Engineers



Flooding Mississippi River - Blowing Up Levees and Returning Floodplains

This morning, the Mississippi River crested in Memphis, rising just shy of the all-time record height of 48.7 feet set during the great 1937 flood. The river, normally half a mile wide at Memphis, is now about three miles wide.  The only reason that this flood didn't set a new record was because the Army Corps of Engineers blasted levees and opened up two "floodways."  Find full articles via GOOD Magazine

Should We Follow the Dutch and Give Land Back to the Flooding Mississippi River?

The Project Flood Is Upon Us": Mississippi River Surge Is a 1-in-500 Year Event

The promotional video for "Room for the River" (english) or "ruimte voor de rivier" (dutch) is worth 3.5 minutes of your time just to see how social marketing for flood-related topics occurs in other parts of the world.  And if you want to see video of the levee being taken down for the Project Flood article from Wall Street Journal "Great Balls of Fire" News Hub.