Areas along the Missouri River are dealing with everything from rising water to severe flooding and property destruction after much higher than normal amounts of rain have fallen throughout the basin this past month.
Chief of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Missouri River Basin Water Management Division John Remus says their number one priority is life safety.
Kevin Grode is the reservoir regulation team lead for the Corps’ Missouri Basin Water Management Office. He says parts of South Dakota, Nebraska and Kansas have seen four to six times their normal rainfall for this time of year.
Grode says soils are so saturated that the rain runs off rather than soaking in.
Kevin Low with the National Weather Service Missouri River Basin Forecast Center, says more significant rainfall is on the way, but there could be some short relief next week.
The US Army Corps of Engineers expects releases from all system projects will be above average for the next several months, and possibly as late as November.
The updates are posted to Facebook and Twitter at NWDUSACE and can be viewed here: http://www.nwd-mr.usace.army.mil/rcc/reports/pdfs/weeklyupdate.pdf.
To view the detailed three-week release forecast for the mainstem dams, go to http://www.nwd-mr.usace.army.mil/rcc/reports/twregfcast.pdf.
All US Army Corps managed dams–reservoir levels, inflows and releases:
http://www.nwd-mr.usace.army.mil/rcc/reports/pdfs/MRBWM_River_Daily.pdf.
