|
|
|
HOW HIGH IS THE WATER? At Sibley, the river had dropped to 30.03 feet late Thursday– still a foot above the moderate flood stage – but down from 30.85 feet on Monday and down from a high of 31.1 on July 7. It’s expected to fall just a few inches over the next few days.
At Napoleon, the river continues to drop slightly as well, from 27.27 feet Monday to 26.57 feet late Thursday and about 26 feet by early next week. The moderate flood stage is 25 feet, the major flood stage is 30 feet, and forecasters say it could rise to 29.5 feet this summer.
The Missouri River basin includes all or parts of 10 states and a sliver of Canada, so significant rainfall in any of that area can affect river levels, but nothing beyond scattered storms are expected in the coming days.
“The game changer could be any precipitation in the upper or lower basin,” Col. Tony Hoffman, commander of the Corps of Engineers Kansas City District, said Thursday.
WHAT'S GOING ON UPRIVER? The upper part of the Missouri River basin got almost half a year’s worth of rain and melted snow in June alone, says Jody Farhat, chief of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Missouri River Basin Water Management. Normally the river above Sioux City, Iowa, gets 28 million acre feet of inflowing water annually. In June – the wettest month since the beginning of records in 1898 – that area got 13.8 million acre feet. In May and June together, the area got 24.3 million acre feet, in other words, seventh-eighths of an average year’s worth of rain in just two months.
The reservoirs behind the six upstream dams used for flood control remain full, but the relatively dry weather is allowing the Corps of Engineers to slowly bring those reservoir levels down – giving the system more room to handle future heavy storms – and plans to slowly begin cutting dam releases. At Gavins Point, the dam farthest downstream, the record releases of 160,000 cubic feet per second are scheduled to be cut to 150,000 on Aug. 1 – the level officials had at one point hoped would be the maximum for the summer. That’s still more than twice as much as the 56-year-old dam has ever released before.
The river at St. Joseph was at 28.06 feet late Thursday, a foot above major flood stage, but down from 29.97 feet on June 28. The reading was the second highest ever, behind only the 32.07 reading in 1993. The river is expected to stay at 28 feet through the weekend. The river also remains at the moderate flood stage in Brownville and Rulo in Nebraska and Atchison and Leavenworth in Kansas (all four on the Missouri border) as well as Waverly, Miami and Glasgow in Missouri.
HOW HIGH IS THE WATER? At Sibley, the river had dropped to 30.03 feet late Thursday– still a foot above the moderate flood stage – but down from 30.85 feet on Monday and down from a high of 31.1 on July 7. It’s expected to fall just a few inches over the next few days.
At Napoleon, the river continues to drop slightly as well, from 27.27 feet Monday to 26.57 feet late Thursday and about 26 feet by early next week. The moderate flood stage is 25 feet, the major flood stage is 30 feet, and forecasters say it could rise to 29.5 feet this summer.
The Missouri River basin includes all or parts of 10 states and a sliver of Canada, so significant rainfall in any of that area can affect river levels, but nothing beyond scattered storms are expected in the coming days.
“The game changer could be any precipitation in the upper or lower basin,” Col. Tony Hoffman, commander of the Corps of Engineers Kansas City District, said Thursday.
WHAT'S GOING ON UPRIVER? The upper part of the Missouri River basin got almost half a year’s worth of rain and melted snow in June alone, says Jody Farhat, chief of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Missouri River Basin Water Management. Normally the river above Sioux City, Iowa, gets 28 million acre feet of inflowing water annually. In June – the wettest month since the beginning of records in 1898 – that area got 13.8 million acre feet. In May and June together, the area got 24.3 million acre feet, in other words, seventh-eighths of an average year’s worth of rain in just two months.
The reservoirs behind the six upstream dams used for flood control remain full, but the relatively dry weather is allowing the Corps of Engineers to slowly bring those reservoir levels down – giving the system more room to handle future heavy storms – and plans to slowly begin cutting dam releases. At Gavins Point, the dam farthest downstream, the record releases of 160,000 cubic feet per second are scheduled to be cut to 150,000 on Aug. 1 – the level officials had at one point hoped would be the maximum for the summer. That’s still more than twice as much as the 56-year-old dam has ever released before.
The river at St. Joseph was at 28.06 feet late Thursday, a foot above major flood stage, but down from 29.97 feet on June 28. The reading was the second highest ever, behind only the 32.07 reading in 1993. The river is expected to stay at 28 feet through the weekend. The river also remains at the moderate flood stage in Brownville and Rulo in Nebraska and Atchison and Leavenworth in Kansas (all four on the Missouri border) as well as Waverly, Miami and Glasgow in Missouri.
WHAT'S BEING DONE? Officials are keeping a close eye on levees but warn that workers there take it easy in the high heat of the next few days.
“Public safety remains our top priority,” Hoffman said.
Also, Gov. Jay Nixon has asked the federal Farm Service Agency to begin assessing rain and flood damage in 27 counties, including Jackson County. That could clear the way for assistance to farmers.
WHY IS THIS AREA LESS HARD HIT THAN CITIES UPSTREAM FROM KANSAS CITY? The river changes a lot after it bends at Kansas City, where the Kansas and Blue rivers flow into it.
“The big thing ... is it just widens out more,” Hoffman said.
The river was at 31.56 feet late Thursday in Kansas City, having fallen from 32.11 feet late Tuesday. Flood stage is 32 feet. It’s expected to dip below 31 feet by early next week.
The Corps of Engineers has reduced dam releases at reservoirs feeding the Kansas River, but that river also remains high. It was just above flood stage Thursday at Kansas City, Kan., and is expected to fall below that level this weekend. No flooding is or has been reported on the Blue or Little Blue rivers.
HOW CAN I FOLLOW THE NEWS? The National Weather Service is at www.weather.gov/kc and has regular updates on NOAA weather radio broadcasts. The Kansas City and Omaha districts of the Corps of Engineers are posting frequent updates on Facebook and Twitter: @KCUSACE and @OmahaUSACE.
