Residents wait, watch rising waters of the Missouri - The talk around town here these days isn't so much about bushels of corn per acre. It's about cubic feet of water.
After weeks of worrying about the rising Missouri River, people are fluent in the language of flood and names like Oahe, Fort Randall and Gavins Point.
Those are the dams that control what happens here and downstream along the swollen river, which has flooded areas from Montana through Missouri, forcing residents to shore up protections, raise temporary levees and evacuate their homes.
"There was some talk this morning about more than 150,000 cubic feet per second coming out of Oahe," said Jerry Compton, working on Sunday at a convenience store in Missouri Valley.
If the release from the Oahe Dam is increased further, she said: "We will eventually get water."
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers increased water releases on Saturday from two dams -- Oahe above Pierre, South Dakota's capital, and Big Bend Dam just downstream -- to make room for expected potentially heavy rains through early next week.
Water releases from five dams in North Dakota and South Dakota have already about doubled prior records to relieve reservoirs swollen by heavy winter snows and spring rainfall at the river's Montana headwaters.
Vehicles sit stranded in flood waters in rural Missouri Valley, Iowa
U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service employees reinforce a levy more than a mile away from the Missouri River in rural Missouri Valley
For large cities such as Omaha and Council Bluffs, the amount of water from the releases can be handled. But for smaller towns north and south of Omaha's metropolitan area, residents fret that the water could be a problem.
South of Omaha, near Craig, Missouri, water was topping a levee where a 100-foot wide breach occured late on Saturday, said Aaron Abbott of the Holt County sheriff's office.
The water was flooding farmland, Abbott said.
The threat of flooding is stressful, said Compton, who knows her customers by name and even knows what brand of cigarettes they buy.
"People either moved out of their homes to another house, or they're trying to live in a camper. Some people have had their utilities cut off," she said. "We just sit here and wait."
Peak releases are planned until at least mid August and high flows are expected until December. ( Reuters )
After weeks of worrying about the rising Missouri River, people are fluent in the language of flood and names like Oahe, Fort Randall and Gavins Point.
Those are the dams that control what happens here and downstream along the swollen river, which has flooded areas from Montana through Missouri, forcing residents to shore up protections, raise temporary levees and evacuate their homes.
"There was some talk this morning about more than 150,000 cubic feet per second coming out of Oahe," said Jerry Compton, working on Sunday at a convenience store in Missouri Valley.
If the release from the Oahe Dam is increased further, she said: "We will eventually get water."
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers increased water releases on Saturday from two dams -- Oahe above Pierre, South Dakota's capital, and Big Bend Dam just downstream -- to make room for expected potentially heavy rains through early next week.
Water releases from five dams in North Dakota and South Dakota have already about doubled prior records to relieve reservoirs swollen by heavy winter snows and spring rainfall at the river's Montana headwaters.
Vehicles sit stranded in flood waters in rural Missouri Valley, Iowa
U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service employees reinforce a levy more than a mile away from the Missouri River in rural Missouri Valley
For large cities such as Omaha and Council Bluffs, the amount of water from the releases can be handled. But for smaller towns north and south of Omaha's metropolitan area, residents fret that the water could be a problem.
South of Omaha, near Craig, Missouri, water was topping a levee where a 100-foot wide breach occured late on Saturday, said Aaron Abbott of the Holt County sheriff's office.
The water was flooding farmland, Abbott said.
The threat of flooding is stressful, said Compton, who knows her customers by name and even knows what brand of cigarettes they buy.
"People either moved out of their homes to another house, or they're trying to live in a camper. Some people have had their utilities cut off," she said. "We just sit here and wait."
Peak releases are planned until at least mid August and high flows are expected until December. ( Reuters )
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