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Missouri River flooding

S

summitpeaking

Free Member
I live in NE Nebraska, and we have been hearing all sorts of mixed reports on what is going on upstream of us on the Missouri River. Does anyone have any reliable information on the Corps' plans for releasing water from the dams? We've got a lot of time and money at stake down here, as does everyone else both upstream and downstream of us. I'm just looking for a little first hand information on what we can be expecting. If anyone has any good websites that we can keep an eye on, please let us know as well. My thoughts go out to everyone that is being affected by this.

On a side note, does anyone else think that this is not being covered nationally like it probably should be? For the first part of this year, you couldn't watch The Price is Right without having a breaking news story regarding the flooding down in the lower Mississippi valley. Not that I think it needs more national coverage, but I was just noticing the lack of it for some reason.
 
Go to www.bismarcktribune.com and click on ND Flood. It incredible the garrison dam north of bismarck is all but full and the corps has been slowly increasing the CFS (cubic feet per second)output. I believe normal cfs is around 10,000 as of today we are up to 95,000 and increasing to 100,000 by the end of the day. They will increase again tomorrow to 105,000 and 115,000 by friday. The corp is talking about 150,000 cfs by mid june. Bismarck and Mandan are both building dikes to help control the rising water, but sadly alot of people are going to lose their homes. So yes, if you are down stream from this I cant help but think you will be affected some way.
 
My sister lives in Ft. Pierre and they are supposed to be letting 150,000 CHS out of Oahe by today I beleive and the snow hasn't really began a serious melt here in the mountains. Was 78 here today though. Fort Peck is going out the spillway from what I have heard. As far as national coverage is concerned there just isn't the people around our neck of the woods to talk about. Anyone outside of Montana know that most of southeastern and southcentral Montana just had their wettest May on record most places over 10 inches of rain in 2 weeks. Flooding everywhere.
 
Yup, just about every major river feeding the Missouri in Montana has been flooding for the last two weeks. This is just from the recent rains, the snow has not begun to melt yet. If you live near the river you should probalby expect the worst this year.
 
They are slowly upping the discharge out of Gavins Point and Ft. Randall every day, with 150,000 CFS not to far out. I realize that this is an all summer deal. We're just trying to gather as much info as we can from upstream so we can have a better idea on what's coming down the line. Thanks fellas.
 
snowpacks are still mostly 75%+ of peak.. theres a LOT of water left in the hills. finaly got warm today in MT, been cool and rainy/snowy. I am glad i live nowhere near moving water evertime i look at the rivers right now.
 
Ski-Dooin it said:
snowpacks are still mostly 75%+ of peak.. theres a LOT of water left in the hills. finaly got warm today in MT, been cool and rainy/snowy. I am glad i live nowhere near moving water evertime i look at the rivers right now.
Click to expand...

The Belt Mountains are sitting at 396% of normal for this time of year.
 
Garrison dam opened 7 of its 28 spillways yesterday for the first time ever, the lake was within 1' of spilling over. Bismarck hit flood stage this morning at 16' and is expected to rise another 4' in the upcoming weeks.
 
knzee said:
The Belt Mountains are sitting at 396% of normal for this time of year.
Click to expand...
HOLY CHIT!!!

i just check and the vast majority of MT snotels are over 200% of normal and a few odd ducks at only 150% of normal. there is a LOT of snowpack chillin up there right now!
 
One way to get a sense of this is to look at Jeff C's link and compare the record flow to the projected record flow. You'll see for the Dakotas the projecteds are all more than double the previous records. That means that the Dakotas will see more than twice as much water as has ever flowed in the Missouri since the dams were built 45 - 55 years ago. Some estimates are that the Missouri river fishing will be decimated for 5 to 10 years. It's not going to be pretty.
 
Our local paper just put the snowpack table in there today..

NOT A SINGLE watershed basin in Montana is UDNER 200% of snow pack. Some are up close to 400%.

Yeah, it's gonna last another month.
 
summitpeaking said:
On a side note, does anyone else think that this is not being covered nationally like it probably should be? For the first part of this year, you couldn't watch The Price is Right without having a breaking news story regarding the flooding down in the lower Mississippi valley. Not that I think it needs more national coverage, but I was just noticing the lack of it for some reason.
Click to expand...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VTLs1LiUDC4

Anyone know the reason the dams were not releasing water months ago in preparation of spring rain/snow melt?
 
Last edited:
Mafesto said:
Wouldn't surprize me if it was to protect the spawning areas of the spotted pisswhicket or largebreasted bedthrasher.
Click to expand...

Funny you say that. The Army Corp of Eng. had a meeting in Onawa and, at that meeting he said the reason for not releasing water sooner was to protect a generation of some species of bird. The birds nest near the river banks, and "they" (had to be the DNR? The Army Corp wouldn't care about a bird...nor would they say that to the public) didn't want to disturb the nesting.
This is rumor since I was not at the meeting. But the same story has been told from many people that were at the meeting...I wouldn't surprise me if this was the reason.

If it is the reason what are they going to do with all the fish kill that will happen when the water levels go down. And fish are trapped in fields/ditchs/etc..



Whatever the reason it's a bad result.....
 
The theory is that the heavily loaded current will wash a lot of fish downstream because they can't withstand the current...and the normal food sources aren't available during extended highwater season.
 
Scott said:
The theory is that the heavily loaded current will wash a lot of fish downstream because they can't withstand the current...and the normal food sources aren't available during extended highwater season.
Click to expand...
Gotcha, thanks for clearing that up.
 
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