I may be all wet.......

[Digger]

actually, the entire Missouri River bottom is all wet, or will be soon. Here is a picture of I-29, a couple miles north of Omaha / Council Bluffs.

[attachment 201606 missouririverfloodingjune2011.jpg]
In case you haven't seen this on the news, the Corp is currently releasing 150,000 cubic feet per SECOND out of Gavins Point Dam near Yankton, SD. In plain talk, that rate of flow would filll an olympic sized pool in half a second. Dozens of towns are being evacuated, homes and businesses are being destroyed and thousands upon thousands of acres of farmland is underwater or soon will be. And I'm not talking about being wet for a few days. The Corp anticipates that some towns may have 10 - 12 feet of water in their streets for two months or more. The levee system that is in place along the river was built in the 40's and it has been breached in several locations. It was not designed to withstand the amount of water that is being released nor for the timespan that is anticipated. I've detected many old homesteads along this river and have gotten to know several of the farmers quite well. Many of them farm land that has been in their families since it was first settled in the 1850's. They are now set up to lose their homes, buildings and everything they've worked so hard to build. If you or someone you know lives "downstream", get ready for a big one because this isn't going to stop at the State line. Randy

 

[DDazzzle]

Flooding on a scale like that is really shocking, one can only hope that there is aid for those who are affected

 

[Mobius]

Thanks for the update, very sad for everyone involved.

I remember hearing about Yanktown in HBO's Deadwood, but never took the time to learn about it. Time to rectify that....

 

[Chris Mac]

My thoughts and good wishes are with everybody effected.

 

[MT_VertCaver]

Yep...it's going to be bad for awhile.

The snow in Montana's mountains are JUST NOW starting to melt.(The mountains got 3 inches of snow last week.) All of our dams/lakes are full(first time in years)....so here it comes.

 

[Furious T]

A lot of Australians will be thinking of those affected Randy, as we have had some mammoth floods in our eastern regions over the last 6 months or so...my concerns and best wishes are with you all.

 

[TURNMASTER]

Pray for them, HARD.

Not just for those immediately affected but those who will be affected when the economic fallout hits all of those who rely on the farms for food and work (that's all of us).

Jeff

 

[Mick in Dubbo]

Sorry to see you guys get hit like that. We copped flooding here last Christmas. My favourite detecting site, which is only a 15 minute walk away, went under 6 feet of water for a month. Had the river come up only a few more inches, I would have been cut off from my job. As it was, half the main shopping centre got flooded. It's a slow motion disaster, and the strench ain't real pleasant either.
A lot of the Aussies will be thinking about you all, as our entire eastern seaboard was affected then and sections of it hit again real bad only a few days ago.
Mick Evans.

 

[Bell-Two]

This is a difficult situation for all, and my prayers are with you and them. How do they decide when to do this, I heard on the news that a lot of towns along the Mississippi would be flooded to help New Orleans I have a hard time coming to grips with this. How do they determine that some place is more "worthy" of being saved? I am not making any judgments, I do not live in New Orleans nor along the Mississippi so it is not up to me...just puzzled thats all.

 

[Jack Beam]

I really hope this is gonna be over soon for those that have been flooded out! This is way too much! Prayin for ya!

 

[Digger]

It doesn't appear it will be over any time soon. In addition to some substantial rains the past few days, the Corp announced today that it will be increasing the amount of water released from Gavins Point to 160,000 cubic feet/second and will continue at that pace until the end of August. 160,000 cu ft/second equates to filling a football field to a depth of four feet, every second. Randy

 

[Digger]

Aerial videos of the flood area, taken yesterday.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ozcDEs4ZDkM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tev28CkIdAs

 

[David]

I know land has been handed down for many years in old families and a lot of people cannot help it as it is not their fault is what is mainly happening now. But if a new person purchases-builds a house, one lesson learned by me a long time ago is with the biggest investment in a persons lifetime do a small amount of research ahead of time to see if the land is a potential flood zone 'or' there were any historical floods on record in the past because sure enough it will happen again, if so, do not purchase the property or do not build there, buy or build elsewhere.

Otherwise pray, Father God in heaven 'stop the rain', enough rain, make the waters recede and go down in the flood affected areas of North America in Jesus Christ name.

 

[Digger]

I agree that we need to be aware of the surroundings. But some of the towns that have been evacuated are located 5 miles or more from the river channel. The levees that were built to protect this ground, highways, railroads, country roads, bridges and some of these towns have broken down and the water is flowing everywhere. Interstate 29 is closed, as well as several highways and most of the county roads. All the bridges across the Missouri River between Plattsmouth Nebraska and St. Joseph Missouri are closed. To date, more than 110,000 acres of farmland has been flooded and they ares still increasing the amount they are letting out of the dams. If you were wanting to buy some of this farm land prior to the flood, some of it would fetch moer than $8000 per acre. That is one of the reasons that many of the farms have been "in the family" for generations. To the folks who have had to evacuate some of these towns, it is a sad situation. In the US, a person obtains structural flood insurance through the Federal Emergency Management Agency. In early May, when it looked like heavy snow falls and record rainfall in the mountains could pose a potential problem, many folks went to their local insurance agent and filled out the flood insurance applications. Several weeks later, when the Army Corp of Engineers started letting water out of Garrison Dam in North Dakota (4 reservoirs and 700 miles from here), they said it could cause flooding downstream. FEMA then determined that June 1st would be the "official date" for the Missouri River basin flood of 2011. Even though the water wouldn't get down here for weeks, June 1st is the date they chose for everyone in the Missouri River basin. Anyway, those folks who applied for their insurance in May just learned that the "new policies" had to be in place for 30 days before the "official date", regardless of whether the water level had reached their homes yet, regardless of whether the levy system maintained by the Army Corp of Engineers breached and regardless of whether or not they had ever had flooding in that area before. So the Feds are the only ones who can provide structural flood insurance, the Feds opened the flood gates at the series of dams, the Feds are the folks who maintain the levees that have breached and the Feds set the date that determines whether or not you've had your insurance policy long enough to have coverage. Something just ain't right with the way this works. JMHO HH Randy